Gustave Moreau Museum

Here we are at our first stop, I welcome you to 14 rue de La Rochefoucauld, in a den of beauty, where a man, one of my favorite artists, Gustave Moreau, settled in 1851. One masters of the Symbolist movement, Moreau created in this unique place and until the end of his life, a house, a workshop and for his posterity a Museum.

What makes this place so exceptional for me is that this sanctuary of symbolism has not moved a millimeter since the artist's death on April 18, 1898. But also, it is the profusion of works , on 3 floors the museum offers you no less than 14,000 works of art, including paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculptures. Enough to make your head spin.

From the moment you push open the front door, to the moment you reach the 3rd floor, the show never ends. From floor to ceiling, the creativity of this genius artist will never stop surprising you. I myself, who come quite often, always discover new works, whether in certain details of a monumental painting that I had missed or by opening the doors of the small cabinets created for Moreau, I am amazed by some of his preparatory drawings, thinking that they had before their eyes a completed work.

A room that I particularly like is his reception room on the first floor, where he received rare guests during the last two years of his life, in what can be considered a museum inside a museum.

I wish you a good visit and do not hesitate to ask your questions to the team of enthusiasts working in the museum, who will be able to guide you, I am sure.

If you arrive in the afternoon when the sun begins to set, an autumn light crosses the curtain of this modern cabinet of curiosities on the 1st floor, and creates a cozy, intimate and timeless atmosphere which could sometimes remind me let one think that Gustave Moreau is passing by me to go sit at his desk, pick up a pencil and work frantically on a new painting idea...