Musée Marmottan, Paris - Monet And Much More

Permanent exhibition of the Musée Marmottan

Housed in the former mansion of the wealthy Marmottan family, Musée Marmottan is a three-story house, consisting of the ground floor, second floor, and the basement. On the ground floor of the museum, you will find exhibits from the periods of the First and Second Empire. You will recognize candelabras, clocks, and other appliances from these periods by their gilding and extravagant design. Furthermore, this section of the museum displays exceptional sculptures, which draw inspiration from ancient Greek mythology.

A series of especially big paintings depict various estates in France visited by Napoleon Bonaparte in the company of his wife and entourage. Pay attention to the marble clock standing by the stairway leading to the upper level. Commissioned for Napoleon to highlight his numerous achievements, the clock wasn’t complete until his downfall. For that reason, the clock introduces different sides of the world through the representation of people, buildings, nature, and landmarks.

On the second floor, you can find a series of religious icons created throughout history by artists of different nationalities, including French and Italian. A few stained-glass windows are also on display here, as well as sculptures representing the Virgin, and the Virgin with the child. While you are on the second floor, don’t miss the “Le Cerisier” masterpiece by Berthe Morisot, a gifted lady who painted two girls picking cherries.

The Impressionist section of the Musée Marmottan

To get to the Impressionist collection of Musée Marmottan, you need to walk through the section reserved for temporary exhibitions. By the end of this part of the museum, take a stairs down.

Upon descending, turn into the first room to the right. There, you will see Claude Monet’s “Impressionism, Le Soleil Levant” masterpiece. The painting that lends its name to the Impressionist art movement depicts the sunrise at a seaport. Furthermore, you will see paintings depicting landscapes and landmarks of Rouen (the Rouen Cathedral), Norway, the Netherlands, and many other places the maestro visited in his life. A big collection of the Water Lilies is also on display there. If you are a big admirer of Monet, you can see a portrait of him while reading by Renoir on the ground floor, while portraits of his boys are in the basement.

A few words about the exhibition inspired by the Orient

When I visited the Musée Marmottan, the temporary exhibition was “L’Orient des Peintres, du reve a la lumiere.” The exhibition elaborates the Orient as imagined or experienced by French artists. In the 19th century, the French became obsessed with North Africa and the Orient as the result of the French military and scientific expedition between 1798 and 1801. Napoleon Bonaparte led the expedition, at the beginning at least.

The exhibition introduces North African cities, landscapes, everyday practices, and people, from humble slaves to courtesans to street performers. Some scenes take place in the hammam, while others depict scenes in slave markets and introduce desert caravans. Slavery had a long tradition in North Africa since the pirates and slave traders from the Orient sailed far and wide, reaching even the British shores. The focus of this temporary exhibition is the beauty of a woman.

If you have a chance, I strongly recommend visiting the “L’Orient des Peintres” exhibition. Some painters whose works of art are on display are Eugene Delacroix, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edouard Debat-Ponsan.