The Musée Jacquemart-André, dedicated to fine arts and decorative arts, is located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, at 158 Boulevard Haussmann. The townhouse, today a museum open to everyone, was in the 19th century the private residence of a wealthy art-collecting couple from the upper bourgeoisie: Monsieur André and Madame Jacquemart.
Visiting the Musée Jacquemart-André
Visitors first enter the “Salon des Peintures,” an entrance hall that gradually leads them into the “Grand Salon” and the other wings of the house. François Boucher, Jean Siméon Chardin, Canaletto and Jean-Marc Nattier are among the prestigious artists whose works are gathered in the “Salon des Peintures.”
These paintings greet visitors just as they greeted the guests of Monsieur André and Madame Jacquemart nearly 150 years ago. The bourgeois contemporaries of the André couple rediscovered, in their hosts’ singular gallery, the 18th-century painters whom they had long considered minor.
Striking in its grace is the portrait of Mathilde de Canisy, the Marquise d’Antin, age 14, all softness and innocence, set against a backdrop of an oak tree, sky and river. The painter, Jean-Marc Nattier, was a great favorite of Louis XV’s wife, Marie Leszczyńska, and her daughters, thanks to the charm and lightness that characterized the royal portraits he painted.
These qualities are evident in the portrait of Mathilde de Canisy, which today is highly prized in Édouard and Nélie’s collection but drew no attention at all in its own time. Ten years after painting Mathilde de Canisy, Nattier was appointed official portraitist of the royal court.
A portrait of pure innocence, did I say? The girl had already been married for two years: as was the custom of the time, she had been married off to a boy of her own rank at age 12. The pose in which she is painted conveys both control and authority at once. Her two crossed arms form a diagonal line that cuts across the space and dominates it. Beneath her downward-facing arm sits a small black dog; above her upward-facing arm perches a parrot, which appears to be under her ownership.
The girl tames nature, and seems almost to create it herself. Her pose reminds me of the pose of the Creator of the world in the Bible:
Yea, mine [left] hand hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.
(Isaiah 48:13)
Completing the picture is a bouquet of flowers spilling from the marquise’s lap, like a victor’s prize. The hue of her dress blends into the color of the sky, its folds merge harmoniously with the waves of the river, and all of this speaks of softness, on one hand, expressed in young and graceful femininity, and authority, on the other hand, expressed in control over the surrounding background: right and left, up and down, every direction.
Portrait of Mathilde de Canisy, 1738. Photo credit: museum website
After crossing the “Salon des Peintures,” guests moved on to the “Grand Salon,” where Édouard André received his guests. For especially important receptions, he would raise the partitions using hydraulic lifts to join the “Salon des Peintures,” the “Grand Salon” and the “Music Salon” into a single hall. Édouard and his wife Nélie could host as many as a thousand guests at the prestigious balls that drew all of Paris’s high society.
What makes the “Grand Salon” unique is its shape, a half-circle, reflecting the 18th-century taste that favored curves over straight lines. The room’s design blends genuine 18th-century furniture and art objects with high-quality imitations from the period when the house was built. This is a harmonious fusion, what is called eclecticism, characteristic of the decorative arts just coming into their own. The “Grand Salon” holds no paintings, only 18th-century marble sculptures and busts of politicians and artists.
Striking in the movement of its curls is the bust sculpted by Antoine Coysevox, the greatest sculptor at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, who knew how to breathe life into his works. The king’s first architect, Jacques Gabriel, his face turned slightly to the right, wearing a long wig, draped in a wide cloak over a ruffled shirt, is sculpted in the full majesty of his authority.
Bust of the architect Jacques Gabriel, 1711. Photo credit: museum website
The third room, the “Music Salon,” its walls draped in red fabric and its furniture made of dark wood, is designed in the style of the Second Empire. The paintings hanging there, by Hubert Robert, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, carry visitors back to the 18th century. The ceiling painting is signed by the most sought-after painter-designer of his time, Pierre-Victor Galland, and depicts Apollo, patron of the arts and music, extending his protection over the house.
The portrait of an old man with an unruly beard and an open shirt, found in the “Music Salon,” captures the delight Jean-Honoré Fragonard took in playing with color, light and shadow to bring out a facial expression, almost a grimace (reproach? anger? disgust?).
The motif of the bearded old man was a favorite of 18th-century painters, and Fragonard embraced it after returning from Rome in 1760. A clasp medallion bearing the letter F, the first letter of Fragonard’s name, seems to say: “The old man is me.”
Head of an Old Man, 1765. Photo credit: museum website
The couple’s dining room now serves as a tearoom-restaurant, open to the public, one of the most beautiful in Paris. Its scale and design reflect its importance in the household’s daily life. Five tapestries, woven in Brussels in the 18th century, depict the adventures of Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War. Their colors are remarkably fresh.
The couple’s dining room, today a tearoom-restaurant. Photo credit: museum website
Tiepolo’s ceiling painting, depicting the arrival of Henri III being announced as he passed through Venice on his way from Poland to Paris to take the throne in place of his brother, Charles IX, is connected to the staircase wall painting. Both originate from the Villa Contarini, in the Veneto region. Henri III was the son of the Italian Catherine de’ Medici, and was received by the Doge Contarini, a historical episode chosen by an Italian painter, a work that ultimately found its place in Paris: what a delight!
A festive atmosphere pervades the ceiling painting as well, and the painter himself appears forever within his own work, among those welcoming the king.
Here the visit to the grand salons comes to an end.
I recommend ending your whole visit at the tearoom-restaurant, a rare moment of relaxation and pleasure. For a moment, feel like a wealthy collector! You can check out the menu on the museum’s website, linked at the end of this article.
The Winter Garden and the Staircase
The refreshing, soothing Winter Garden and the regal staircase, light despite being built of marble, stone, iron and bronze, aroused, more than anything, the admiration of the couple’s contemporaries. Only a ruler or a banker could afford such splendor, it was said and written of them. The wall painting depicting the reception the Doge Contarini held for Henri III is especially impressive.
In 1893 the couple bought the two Tiepolo wall paintings depicting that same scene. Dismantling them and bringing them to the house in Paris was a delicate and complex undertaking that took eight months. They also, of course, had to be reassembled in the Parisian residence. The work was completed before Édouard’s death.
The couple decided to separate the two wall paintings: one in the dining room, the other along the staircase. Just as Henri III climbs the stairs in the Italian villa, so does the visitor climbing the stairs of the French couple’s house. For a moment, feel like a king!
Visitors who have crossed the grand salons now enter the private rooms. The “Salon des Tapisseries” serves as an entrance hall to a series of more intimate rooms designed by the couple for their private lives, their work and receiving close friends: the study, Nélie’s private salon, the library, the smoking room.
The smoking room. Photo credit: museum website
In the smoking room, Édouard André received his male friends after lunch, in front of a Venetian fireplace, while Nélie chatted with her friends in her own private salon. The smoking room’s walls are covered in imitation Cordoba leather made of papier-mâché and decorated with ornaments from the East and portraits from England.
The ceiling of the smoking room is decorated with a painting by a pupil of Tintoretto, depicting the dispute between Neptune and Minerva. Neptune (Poseidon, by his Greek name) and Minerva (Athena, by her Greek name) competed for the title of patron deity of the city of Athens. Poseidon offered the city a spring of water that turned out to be too salty, while Athena offered a sacred olive tree. The Athenians preferred Athena’s gift, and so she became the patron goddess of the city.
Standing out for its beauty in the smoking room is an enamel-coated glass lamp, decorated with Quranic inscriptions interwoven with symbols and palm leaves, commissioned by rulers in the 14th century:
Mosque lamp, 1325. Photo credit: museum website
Don’t forget to go up to the Italian Museum, which includes a sculpture hall, a hall devoted to Florentine art and a hall devoted to Venetian art. Feel privileged! This floor of the house was originally empty, until the couple came up with the idea of displaying the Italian works they had acquired there. The couple’s guests filled the grand reception halls, but the Italian wing was Édouard and Nélie’s secret garden. Only intimate friends or connoisseurs who specifically asked to admire the works were given the chance to see it.
Nélie and Édouard traveled often to Italy, and each time they brought back new acquisitions. Nélie infected Édouard with her passion for Italian art, and he soon developed personal preferences that proved ahead of their time. Nélie filled the sculpture hall, which had been neglected, according to Édouard’s vision. The Florentine hall was designed to Nélie’s taste; the Venetian hall to Édouard’s taste. It should be noted that at the time, few people emphasized Venetian art; all eyes were on Florence, so Édouard was also a pioneer in this respect. Both Édouard and Nélie were ahead of their time.
The Italian Museum includes treasures, most of them religious, though a few are secular. Standing out in the Florentine hall is a panel by Pietro Perugino depicting the Madonna and Child in a realistic way: a real mother (note her jewelry, especially the pendant) and a real child (note the folds of his body), set against a landscape of trees and hills:
The Madonna and Child, 1470. Photo credit: museum website
Standing out in the Venetian hall is a panel by Vittore Carpaccio showing Theseus, king of Athens, receiving a delegation sent by Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. Carpaccio freely reworks the mythological scene, portraying Theseus as a bearded old man. The four young men seen in the panel owe more to 15th-century Venetian court life than to Greek mythology. This is one of the few non-religious works in the Italian Museum:
Theseus Receiving Hippolyta’s Delegation, 1495. Photo credit: museum website
On the ground floor are the couple’s private apartments, including Édouard’s bedroom, Nélie’s bedroom and the room connecting them. This room holds family portraits, as well as the portrait of Édouard that Nélie painted when she first met him, in 1872, a meeting that led to their marriage. In this room, Édouard and Nélie ate breakfast, and it was here that they most loved to meet, just the two of them.
Who were Édouard André and his wife Nélie Jacquemart?
Édouard André was born in 1833 in Paris to a Protestant banking family from the south of France, one of the wealthiest in the country, alongside the Rothschild family. The family, supporters of Napoleon III, took part in the great ventures of the imperial regime. Édouard was destined for a military future, and after a brilliant career as an officer that included campaigns in Italy and Mexico, he left Napoleon III’s army at age 30.
His passion for art found expression in the collection he began to build, but his time was also devoted, following in his father’s footsteps, to political activity. The collection was kept at his home on Rue Roquépine, but he intended to move it to a new house on Boulevard Haussmann. The village of Monceau was annexed to Paris as part of Baron Haussmann’s works to renovate the city. The imperial aristocracy built lavish mansions in the Monceau district and settled there.
In 1868, Édouard André bought a plot of 5,700 square meters on Boulevard Haussmann, which had only just been laid out, paying more than a million and a half francs for it. In the meantime, he lived in a hôtel particulier, that is, a private townhouse, in the same 8th arrondissement, called L’Hôtel de Saint Paul (3 rue Roquépine), which had been built to his order by the architect Henri Parent (1819-1895) between 1861 and 1864.
He hired the same architect again to build him a new townhouse on Boulevard Haussmann, a residence with a garden, courtyard, stables for 14 horses and a garage for 13 cars. The work was completed in 1875, producing a stately mansion of its era, remarkably symmetrical in the classical style, equipped with all the modern conveniences of the time, theatrically designed and suited for receptions and balls.
Henri Parent, a classical architect who had been pushed aside by his rival Charles Garnier in the design of the new Opera building, outdid himself in building Édouard André’s house. Its façade, which does not line up with the façades of the other buildings on the street but is slightly raised and set back from them, breaks the order and catches the eye.
The house’s inauguration in 1876 was described in the press of the time as an event as splendid as the inauguration of the Opera building. All the elegant ladies of the city, all of Parisian high society, were present. The walls of the entrance halls disappeared behind fragrant garlands of camellias and violets, and the gleam of the gilded decorations in the ballroom shone in the light of a thousand candles.
Once he had bought the plot intended for the future museum-house, Édouard André left politics, which no longer held any appeal for him, and devoted himself entirely to the love of his life, art. In 1872 he even bought the leading journal in the field of art history, La Gazette des Beaux-Arts, which in 1928 would pass into the hands of the renowned art dealer family, Wildenstein.
Édouard André also served as president of the Central Union of Decorative Arts, an association whose mission was to promote culture, art and design, combining the beautiful and the useful by connecting industrialists and economists with artists. Édouard believed that a collector had an important role to play in shaping public taste, and he planned to open a museum of decorative arts. Since the state had no interest in supporting the venture, Édouard decided to realize it in his own home.
1872 was, it seems, the lucky year of Édouard’s life, when he approached the high society portrait painter Nélie Jacquemart to commission his portrait. Nélie was one of the few women of her time to have studied painting, and she had built a considerable reputation in her field. She asked Édouard not to come to her alone, so he asked his cousin to accompany him.
It was the cousin who came up with the idea of the match. Nélie came from a modest bourgeois family, not wealthy, devoutly Catholic, and royalist. Édouard came from a wealthy Protestant family, close to Napoleon III’s circle. The couple came from very different backgrounds, but they were close in spirit, in taste and in their life goals. Édouard, 48, and Nélie, 40, married in a civil ceremony at the town hall of the 8th arrondissement of Paris, on June 29, 1881. They would have no children.
This marriage was not a love match at first, but the couple’s 13 years together were happy and productive. Édouard could not have found a better partner. Nélie, a practical, active and energetic woman, helped him with expertise and a firm hand to achieve his goals. Her husband set aside a spacious studio for her so she could continue painting, but Nélie preferred to put down her brushes, become a collector, and open up new horizons for Édouard. The room meant to be her studio, Nélie turned into the sculpture hall of the Italian Museum.
Together they systematically built an impressive art collection and displayed it beautifully in their enormous house, which served as a magical backdrop. Édouard was especially passionate about 18th-century paintings, sculptures, tapestries and art objects. Nélie was especially passionate about Italian paintings from the 14th century to the Renaissance, and managed to acquire, a splendid achievement, 124 works.
Together the two traveled to Italy to buy works of art. While the couple was busy visiting antique dealers and auction houses, renovations were carried out at their home to expand it and adapt it to receive the paintings, sculptures, tapestries, furniture and other objects being added to the growing collection. In 1888 they traveled to Saint Petersburg, but had to cut the trip short because of Édouard’s health.
Édouard André died in 1894 at age 60 and left his entire fortune to his “dear wife.” His cousins took her to court but lost: the husband’s will was explicit. Nélie set out that same year on a journey to acquire art objects in the Near East: Egypt, Syria and Persia. From there she brought back ceramics decorated with Arabic script, mosque lamps and manuscripts.
In 1902 she set out on an even longer, farther and bolder acquisition trip, intending to reach Japan and continue on to the United States and Canada, but while she was in India she learned that part of the Chaalis estate, in the Ermenonville forest, about 45 kilometers northeast of Paris, where she had spent her childhood, was up for sale.
She hurried back to France, and while still at sea, she sketched out the room where she would live in the royal estate of Chaalis. After some difficulties, she managed to acquire the coveted estate and made it her home, moving half of the treasures from the Paris house there and continuing to tirelessly buy works of art to enrich the collection.
In 1912, when she died, she was buried in the chapel at Chaalis, as she had wished. Nélie also expressed her wish that the remains of her late husband be brought to be buried beside her, in the chapel, even though he had been Protestant: “he who showered so much goodness on everyone, Catholics included,” as she put it.
The legacy of Édouard André and Nélie Jacquemart
After her husband’s death, Nélie continued his work and became solely responsible not only for acquisitions but also for the renovations, which could already be described as museographic. In 1900 she even approached art experts to produce a catalog of the museum, which would not appear until 1913 and would become an invaluable working tool. Starting in 1902, when she acquired the former royal abbey of Chaalis, Nélie established a second museum there, modeled on the first museum in Paris.
Shortly before her death, she sorted through and organized all the documents related to the collections. Nélie fulfilled the plan she had conceived together with her beloved husband: to bequeath their house, with its breathtaking architectural design and all its contents and treasures, to the Institut de France, so that it would become a museum open to the general public. And that wasn’t all.
She also bequeathed the Chaalis abbey to the Institut de France, so that it too would become a museum, along with a financial endowment to allow for the upkeep of both sites and the care of the collections. Nélie planned everything and left precise instructions, not only regarding the placement and labeling of the exhibits but also regarding management procedures, visitor safety and comfort. No detail was overlooked.
On May 15, 1912, Nélie died alone in her home on Boulevard Haussmann. On December 8, 1913, the Musée Jacquemart-André was inaugurated with great pomp and ceremony by the then-president of the French Republic, Raymond Poincaré, in person. Nothing changed in the house, the gardens or the courtyard of Édouard and Nélie; everything remained in its place, in keeping with the wishes of the great benefactress.
It should be noted, however, that those responsible for the museum take great care to preserve and maintain it. It was thus closed for more than a year, thirteen months, for extensive renovations, and reopened to the public on September 6, 2024. The renovations were carried out with the utmost respect for the original, the place as it was designed by Édouard and Nélie.
The video on the museum’s website about the renovation of the smoking room, for example, describes how those in charge of the work dug through the archives and found two rare photographs from 1913. One, in color, shows that the smoking room’s walls were painted red. The other, in black and white, shows heavy curtains on its windows. Fortunately, a length of the very fabric from which the curtains had originally been made was found in the museum’s storage, the same prominent, dense floral motifs, as in the photograph, on red-violet silk velvet. The smoking room was thus restored to the original, thanks to the two photographs.
The grime was cleaned away. Decorations and ornaments, which had vanished beneath it, were rediscovered and restored to their former shine. Paintings, whose details had blurred, became sharp again. Colors, hidden beneath a gray-brown layer, emerged and bloomed. The place was renewed down to every detail, as a whole: the gems and their surroundings, the treasures and their backdrop.
The royal courtyard, which had originally been sandy, was paved, a slight but necessary departure for visitor comfort, and the green surfaces, the statues and the lanterns were restored to their former freshness. Cleaning, filling in, painting, polishing, wherever possible, while accepting the ravages of time that cannot be undone: the museum is ready!
Success awaits, as always. The museum has never stopped drawing visitors since it opened, and it still does today. Visitors are welcome to enjoy both the permanent collection and the rotating exhibitions. The museum is now equipped with a range of digital tools for visitors and is suitable for all ages, including children.
Practical information and buying tickets
Museum address
Musée Jacquemart-André
158 boulevard Haussmann 75008 Paris
Tél. : 01 45 62 11 59
How to get there?
The simplest and easiest way is by metro. The fastest route is to take line 9 and get off at Saint-Philippe du Roule station, a 2-minute walk from the museum. Another option is to take line 13 and get off at Miromesnil station, a 5-minute walk from the museum.
If you’d like to get there by bus, take one of the following lines: 22, 28, 43, 52, 80, 83, 84, 93. Each one stops at a station a few minutes’ walk from the museum.
Opening hours
The museum is open every day of the week:
- Monday–Thursday: 10:00–18:00
- Friday: 10:00–22:00
- Saturday–Sunday: 10:00–19:00
Tickets for the Musée Jacquemart-André
A note from the author of this article, Dr. Orna Liberman: I would be delighted if you booked your tickets through the links below, to help support the website that hosted this article, as well as all my other articles. Thank you so much!!!
Here are a few types of tickets that will let you skip the line into the museum:
- Ticket for the Musée Jacquemart-André
- Combined ticket for the Musée Jacquemart-André and the Orangerie
- Combined ticket for the Musée Jacquemart-André and Marmottan Monet
- Combined ticket for the Musée Jacquemart-André and Musée Rodin
- Combined ticket for the Musée Jacquemart-André and the Palais Garnier Opera
Link to the museum’s official website
Address of the Musée Jacquemart-André at Chaalis
Le Musée Jacquemart-André à Chaalis
Musée Jacquemart-André – Abbaye Royale de Chaalis
60300 Fontaine-Chaalis
Téléphone : 03 44 54 04 02
Link to its official website
FAQ
Where is the Musée Jacquemart-André located?
Who were the owners of the house who founded the museum?
Which notable artists’ works can be seen among those acquired by the couple?
Who was Mathilde de Canisy and what is her connection to the work in the museum?
Related reading
