Musée national Jean-Jacques Henner

The Musée national Jean-Jacques Henner is a French national art museum devoted to the life and work of painter Jean-Jacques Henner (1829-1905). Located at 43, Avenue de Villiers in the Plaine-de-Monceaux quarter of Paris's 17th arrondissement, it occupies a 19th-century hôtel particulier that was converted into a museum following Henner's own instructions. Opened to the public in 1924, it became a national museum in 1943 and today operates as part of the French national museum network, presenting a comprehensive collection of the artist's paintings, drawings, and personal effects across four floors of exhibition space.

The museum's origins lie in Henner's expressed wish to establish a museum dedicated to his work. In 1921, Marie Henner, widow of the artist's nephew Jules Henner, purchased the building from the heirs of painter Guillaume Dubufe, following Henner's instructions. On 19 June 1923, she donated the property to the French state; the building was restructured for museum use, and the donation was formally accepted by the state on 27 August 1926. The museum was inaugurated on 7 March 1924 by Léon Bérard, Minister of Public Instruction, with Many Benner, a former pupil of Henner, serving as its first director. The initial donation comprised 440 paintings, furniture, and objects belonging to the painter, though the collection has since been augmented by numerous subsequent donations and bequests. The building was raised by two floors in 1935 under architect André Arfvidson. A major renovation campaign took place between 2008 and 2009 under architect Jean-François Bodin, and the museum reopened on 7 November 2009. It closed again on 17 September 2013 for extensive work, notably the rehabilitation of the winter garden, and reopened on 21 May 2016. Since 2017, the museum has been linked to the Musée Gustave Moreau by decree. In 2024, the museum acquired Salomé, variante tardive, a 1904 canvas, through crowdfunding.

The museum holds more than 500 paintings and over 1,000 drawings by Jean-Jacques Henner, spanning his entire career from his training in Alsace to his final work in 1905. The collection also includes approximately 1,000 sketches, documents, and souvenirs. The graphic arts collection encompasses more than 1,300 drawings plus various prints and photographs, which are shown in rotation during temporary exhibitions. The holdings are displayed across seven rooms on four floors, with a pedagogical approach organized around two principal themes: Henner's official career as an artist and the painter's studio. The installation includes personal items such as furniture, carpets, and art objects that belonged to Henner, allowing visitors to trace the development of works from initial idea to finished painting. The museum also holds works by other artists from Henner's own collection, including pieces by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Henri Chapu, Louis-Léon Cugnot, Adolphe Monticelli, Paul Dubois, Félix Trutat, Antoine Vollon, François-Joseph Heim, and Jean and Many Benner. Important deposits from the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay include Saint Sébastien and Solitude.

The collection features more than 130 portraits, as well as paintings of mythical themes and figures in dream landscapes that approach Symbolist concerns. Henner's most celebrated painting, L'Alsace, elle attend, is displayed in the red studio on the first floor. The museum's most monumental work, Les Naïades, is presented on the third floor surrounded by furniture and objects from Henner's studio. Other significant works include the Prix de Rome painting Adam et Ève trouvant le corps d'Abel, deposited by the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts; the large landscape Le Pincio, Rome, terrasse de la villa Médicis; and major Salon presentations such as Joseph Tournois, Portrait de Mme *** dit "La Femme au parapluie", Le Sommeil, Mme Séraphin Henner, and Saint Sébastien. The first floor also features the portrait Eugénie Henner en Alsacienne tenant un panier de pommes, depicting the artist's niece. Preparatory studies are displayed alongside finished paintings, with incomplete works such as Hérodiade, Rébecca, L'Enfant prodigue, and La Vérité illustrating Henner's creative process. In 1988, the museum made its first acquisition, the Portrait de la comtesse de Callac. The 2024 acquisition of Salomé, variante tardive (1904) represents a significant recent addition.

The museum is housed in an hôtel particulier constructed between 1876 and 1878 by architect Nicolas-Félix Escalier for painter Roger Jourdain. In 1878, Guillaume Dubufe acquired the building, which then served as his residence and studio; Henner himself dined there three times in 1878-1879. In 1888, Dubufe added moucharabiehs (latticed screens) from the Goupil collection to ornament the first-floor studio. The building's original two-storey structure was raised by two floors in 1935. The interior spaces retain their 19th-century character, with the former dining room serving as an introductory space, the ground-floor salon aux colonnes presenting large-format works and portraits, and the winter garden functioning as a venue for temporary exhibitions, concerts, and performances. The first floor contains two small red rooms and the red studio; the second floor has a small room behind the moucharabiehs for graphic arts displays; and the third floor houses the grey studio devoted to the theme of the artist's atelier.

The Musée national Jean-Jacques Henner is located at 43, Avenue de Villiers in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, within the Plaine-de-Monceaux neighborhood. As a national museum, it is owned by the French state and managed within the Réunion des musées nationaux network. The museum maintains an official website at http://www.musee-henner.fr/. Since its reopening on 21 May 2016 after major renovations, it has continued to serve its public mission while also hosting temporary exhibitions, such as "Francisco de Goya's La Tauromaquia" (2009-2010), "Visions on Henner's art of drawing" (2010), "From impression to dream: Henner's landscapes" (2012), and "Sensuality and spirituality. In search of the absolute" (2012-2013). The winter garden provides additional programming space for concerts and performances.