Musée Jacquemart-André
A collector's mansion left exactly as its owners arranged it
- Area 8th arrondissement
- Type Museum
- Time needed 1h 30m
The Musee Jacquemart-Andre is a private mansion on boulevard Haussmann in the 8th arrondissement, built in the 1870s for the banker Edouard Andre and left with its contents to the Institut de France by his widow, the painter Nelie Jacquemart, in 1912. The condition of the bequest was that the rooms stay as the couple arranged them, so this is a collection in a home rather than a gallery. The Italian Renaissance holdings and a handful of eighteenth-century French paintings are the reason to come.
Open in the planner →Getting there
Miromesnil on lines 9 and 13 and Saint-Philippe-du-Roule on line 9 are each about four minutes' walk. Saint-Augustin on line 9 is a little further. From Chatelet take line 1 to Franklin D. Roosevelt and change to line 9, roughly twenty minutes door to door. The entrance is at 158 boulevard Haussmann, through a courtyard set back from the street.
What you see
You go through the formal reception rooms first: the grand salon, the music room and the smoking room, hung with Boucher, Fragonard and Tiepolo and furnished as they were used. The winter garden is the set piece, a glazed conservatory with a double marble staircase curving up out of it. Upstairs the tone changes to Nelie Jacquemart's Italian collection, arranged in small cabinet rooms: Uccello, Botticelli, Mantegna, Bellini, della Robbia terracottas and a room of Renaissance bronzes and majolica. The state apartments on the way round include the bedroom and the boudoir with their original hangings. The tea room in the former dining room, under a Tiepolo ceiling, is one of the few museum cafes in Paris worth planning around.
What to pair it with
The Musee Nissim de Camondo and the Musee Cernuschi, both collectors' houses, are a short walk north by the Parc Monceau. The Champs-Elysees and the Grand Palais are fifteen minutes south.
When to go
Weekday mornings shortly after opening are the quietest, which matters here because the rooms are small. The museum runs temporary exhibitions that draw heavy weekend queues even though the permanent rooms stay calm. Late afternoon light through the winter garden glass is the best of the building. Afternoon tea is busiest from about three.
What is hard about it
It is small and the circuit is tight, so a coachload arriving at once is immediately felt; the upstairs cabinet rooms take only a few people comfortably. Booking a timed slot is normally needed, especially during a temporary exhibition, and the exhibition ticket is often bundled with the house whether you want it or not. There is an audio guide included and the wall labelling alone is sparse. The upper floor involves stairs, and lift access is limited, so check before you go if that matters. The Museum Pass is not accepted here, as it is a private institution.
Common questions
How long do you need at the Musee Jacquemart-Andre?
About ninety minutes with the audio guide. Add half an hour if you stop in the tea room.
Is it covered by the Paris Museum Pass?
No. It is privately run and charges its own admission, normally with timed online booking.
What is the single thing to see?
The winter garden and its marble staircase, and upstairs the Italian room with the Uccello and Botticelli panels.
Nearby
- La Madeleine, ParisA Roman temple from the outside, a church within
- Parc MonceauAn English-style park with a colonnade and scattered follies
- Chapelle expiatoireA quiet chapel where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were first buried
More of the same kind
- LouvreThe largest art museum on earth, in a palace, behind a glass pyramid
- Musée d'OrsayImpressionism in a converted railway station, under the great clock
- Centre PompidouModern art behind the inside-out pipes of Rogers and Piano
- Musée RodinThe Thinker and the Gates of Hell in a mansion with a sculpture garden