Musée Marmottan Monet

The building you are approaching began its life as a modest hunting lodge for the Duke of Valmy, tucked away at the edge of the Bois de Boulogne. It was later transformed into an elegant private mansion by the art historian Paul Marmottan, who filled its rooms with an extensive collection of Napoleonic-era furniture, bronzes, and classical art. Paul Marmottan was a staunch defender of traditional, formal artistic styles, and he spent his life curating a residence that celebrated the rigid aesthetics of the First Empire. It is a striking irony that his home eventually became the world’s foremost sanctuary for Impressionism, a movement that famously rebelled against the very traditionalist rules he championed.