Musée Jacquemart-André

The Musée Jacquemart-André is a fine arts and decorative arts museum located at 158 Boulevard Haussmann in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Established in 1913, the institution preserves and displays the private art collection of Édouard André and Nélie Jacquemart within their former mansion. Unlike traditional galleries, the museum maintains the original arrangement of the works in situ, offering a preserved example of a Belle Époque townhouse where architecture and collecting practices remain intimately linked. The collection spans European art from the 14th to the 19th centuries, with particular strength in the Italian Renaissance and 18th-century French painting.

Édouard André, heir to a Protestant banking fortune, began collecting art well before his marriage, initially acquiring works by Delacroix and the Barbizon School. In 1868, he commissioned architect Henri Parent to design a new mansion on Boulevard Haussmann to house his growing collection and host grand receptions, with construction lasting from 1869 to 1875. In 1872, André commissioned the society painter Nélie Jacquemart to paint his portrait, and the two married in 1881. Together, they traveled extensively through Italy and the Orient, methodically amassing art. Following Édouard's death in 1894, Nélie successfully defended his iron-clad will against his relatives, becoming the richest independent woman in France. She continued expanding the collection and completed the Italian Museum before bequeathing the mansion, its contents, and the Abbey of Chaalis to the Institut de France in 1912. The museum opened to the public on December 8, 1913, inaugurated by President Raymond Poincaré.

The museum's holdings encompass Italian Renaissance masterworks, 18th-century French paintings and decorative arts, and Dutch and Flemish canvases. Nélie Jacquemart directed the Italian acquisitions, securing 124 works out of the 137 Italian paintings currently in Paris, ranging from 14th-century primitives to Renaissance pieces. Édouard André focused on French 18th-century decorative art, tapestries, and objets d'art, later complemented by Dutch and Flemish masters. The collection also includes Oriental artworks acquired during Nélie's later travels. The mansion itself was designed specifically to showcase these works, with wall dimensions tailored to fit pre-existing tapestries and rooms organized into thematic period settings.

The Italian galleries feature Paolo Uccello's Saint George and the Dragon, Sandro Botticelli's Virgin and Child and The Flight into Egypt, Giovanni Bellini's Virgin and Child on a Throne, and works by Andrea Mantegna, Donatello, and Luca della Robbia. French 18th-century highlights include Jean-Marc Nattier's Portrait of Mathilde de Canisy, Marquise d'Antin, François Boucher's The Toilet of Venus, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard's Head of an Old Man. Dutch and Flemish works are anchored by Rembrandt's Supper at Emmaus, Frans Hals's Portrait of a Seated Man, and Anthony van Dyck's Portrait of a Judge. The collection also holds Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Bust of Pope Gregory XV, Jacques-Louis David's Portrait of Count Antoine Français de Nantes, and Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun's Portrait of Countess Catharina Skavronskaja.

The hôtel particulier was built from 1869 to 1875 by architect Henri Parent, who sought to surpass the Opéra Garnier by Charles Garnier. The Boulevard Haussmann facade, inspired by the Petit Trianon, features an avant-corps, pilasters, and two flanking pavilions, leading to a cour d'honneur enclosed by a hemicycle wall. Inside, the ground floor is organized into formal State Apartments, including a semicircular Grand Salon that could be expanded into a ballroom using a hydraulic partition system, and informal reception rooms like the Tapestry Room and Study. A glass-roofed Winter Garden provided a retreat for guests and features a double spiral staircase of marble and bronze. The second floor houses the Italian Museum, divided into the Sculpture Gallery, the Florentine Gallery, and the Venetian Gallery, the latter dominated by a coffer ceiling attributed to Mocetto. Frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo adorn multiple ceilings, including the dining room and the study.

The Musée Jacquemart-André is owned by the Institut de France and managed by the Culturespaces organization, which handles visitor reception, maintenance, and temporary exhibitions. The museum is open daily, with extended nocturne hours on Fridays. It is accessible via Metro lines 9 and 13 at Miromesnil, Saint-Augustin, or Saint-Philippe du Roule, and by multiple bus lines. The on-site restaurant, Le Nélie, operates in the former dining room and is accessible without a museum ticket. Following a year-long restoration project that concluded in 2024, which included work on the Tiepolo frescoes and the staircase marbles, the institution continues to host two to three temporary exhibitions annually alongside its permanent displays.