The cover photo for this article was taken by Yoel Thamanlis.
The Mona Lisa isn’t on display here, and it isn’t the crown jewels of Western culture that give this place its status. Still, a visit to the Musée de Montmartre is an unforgettable experience, one you shouldn’t skip. Sometimes the whole is simply the sum of its parts, but this museum, tucked away in one of the city’s most beloved neighborhoods, is far more than a collection of artworks. It’s a fascinating record of a once-vibrant way of life that has since faded, a faithful recreation of the bohemian spirit of the 19th and 20th centuries, and a rousing tribute to the human spirit and the groundbreaking achievements in art, literature and thought that came out of this hill.
From the days of the Belle Époque (French for “the beautiful era”) right up to today, this neighborhood, perched on a pastoral hill overlooking the capital’s major tourist sites, has come to represent the quintessential “French experience.” And if the hill itself is a faithful mirror of the national spirit, then the museum is the truest window for anyone who wants to really understand the character of the people who lived here. Meet the most rooted, local and pastoral museum in a city packed with cultural institutions. But first, before we get to the glorious history, let’s go over a few practical details for visitors.
The practical details below were accurate at the time of writing. A few things may have changed since publication, so visitors should double-check that the details still match reality before their visit.
The Musée de Montmartre in a Few Words
The Musée de Montmartre sits in the neighborhood whose name it carries, and it’s devoted to preserving local culture and heritage. The exhibits fill several spaces inside what’s considered the oldest residential building on the hill. Many artists lived in the Montmartre house, and their work is honored among its displays. Besides the permanent and temporary exhibitions, you can visit the reconstructed studio apartment of the important painter Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) and take in pieces of nostalgia with a genuine, authentic feel.
The house is surrounded by the Renoir Gardens, designed in the spirit of the vivid, lively paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) and overlooking breathtaking views of the local vineyards. And if all that isn’t enough, visitors can grab a bite at the café on site, which offers an ideal pastoral escape for anyone who wants to get away from the hustle of the city. The glass roof, seasonal menu and lush garden all add to the sense of calm. The tearoom-style design reminds visitors and diners just how important the Parisian café used to be for the artists who worked, met and argued inside them, back in the day.
Musée de Montmartre: Location and Getting There
The museum is located on Rue Cortot in the Montmartre area, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. If you want to use a navigation app, the address to search for is: MUSÉE DE MONTMARTRE, 12, RUE CORTOT 75018 Paris.
For those using public transit: you can reach the museum by metro, on line 12 (Abbesses station) or line 2 (Anvers station, followed by the Montmartre funicular). There’s also bus line 40, which stops nearby (Saules-Cortot or Montcenis-Cortot).
Opening Hours
The museum is open every day of the week, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Visitors are allowed in until 5:15 p.m., three-quarters of an hour before closing. The museum isn’t large, but I still recommend setting aside a few hours for a rich, thorough visit.
The Café Renoir is open from 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The menu is varied and seasonal, and it changes regularly. The typical stay runs about an hour and a half, which is fairly standard for a café in a tourist hotspot.
Show me the tickets for the Musée de Montmartre
Other Things to Do
The Musée de Montmartre doesn’t just display Parisian artworks, it presents Paris itself as a work of art. With that in mind, it’s easy to see that the people behind this place aimed for as holistic an experience as possible, one that stays with visitors from the moment they walk through the gates (and even before, in the courtyard) all the way to a Parisian-style dinner.
So what can you actually do at the museum, besides touring the art and soaking in the aesthetic and poetic pleasure of it all? Quite a bit, actually. You can wander through the stunning gardens and feel Renoir’s paintings come to life (in fact, you can buy a reduced ticket for the gardens alone, without entering the museum). You can dine under the glass roof of the on-site restaurant, bathed in warm Parisian sunlight, and picture in your mind the intellectual elite of centuries past engaged in lively debate (try to ignore the fact that the people seated next to you are, most likely, tourists just like you, without a drop of French blood running through their veins). And finally, you can enjoy a glass of local wine from the restored vineyards, whose roots date back to the Middle Ages.
Beyond the permanent exhibits, the museum also hosts temporary exhibitions covering a range of modern art movements. These rotating shows also aim to reflect the character of the area, though by nature they bring in different, more cosmopolitan perspectives. Before your visit, it’s worth checking the museum’s official website to get a sense of what’s currently on display.
There’s also a guided tour through the vines and the enchanting vineyards, held every Saturday at 2:30 p.m. After the peaceful tour, participants get to taste wines made right there on site. To round off the experience, you’ll be given a wine glass engraved with a unique museum design.
Now that we’ve covered the practical side of things, let’s move on to the background: the Musée de Montmartre, why does it exist? Why does a cultural scene as developed as the one in the “City of Light” need yet another tourist institution? How was the site established, which works are preserved there, who were the artists who worked in this particular corner of the city, and what can we learn from it about the connection between art and a sense of place? More on all of that below.
The Best of Times
The 19th century marked major shifts and far-reaching cultural change on a massive scale. In science, it was Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), Thomas Edison (1847-1931) and Charles Darwin (1809-1882) who published groundbreaking research and pushed the world forward. Figures like Napoleon Bonaparte, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and Queen Victoria (1819-1901) presided over a chorus of global events on the world stage, and revolutionaries like Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) sowed the seeds of the ideological thinking that would stir the world in the decades to come. “It was the best of times,” to paraphrase the words of a famous author who was also active in that same eventful century.
While the 21st century belongs to London, and the 20th century saw New York crowned as a cultural stronghold, it was our beloved Paris that served as the gathering place for the great minds who lived and worked in the 19th century. More than any other discipline that flourished in the capital, the city earned its fame through artistic movements that brought about far-reaching changes in method and had a lasting influence on how we think about aesthetics as a whole.
Embracing Change
Necessity is the mother of creativity, and the artists who defined their era worked in constant dialogue with the innovations of their time. The main challenge facing figurative art, brought on by the development of groundbreaking photographic techniques, turned out to be exactly the kind of resistance the artistic spirit of the era drew its strength from. As one well-argued article in Le Figaro put it, the modern painter was expected to weave fleeting, transient motifs into their work while still preserving the unshaken stability of the artistic spirit.
Alongside Neoclassicism and Romanticism, Realism, Symbolism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Pointillism and countless other sub-movements flourished, laying the groundwork for later movements, some of which are still with us today. As the century turned, other cultural powers rose to prominence, but France kept its pioneering status and its image of thoughtful, deliberate innovation.
Dividing and Uniting
Movements like Fauvism stood as a counter-response to German Expressionism; Art Nouveau challenged the old divide between fine and decorative arts; and Synthetism paved the way for the kind of eclecticism so familiar to artists today. Among the artists active at the turn of the century (fin de siècle, though not strictly in the narrow historical sense of the term) you’ll find the names of Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani.
These artists belonged to different movements, sometimes diametrically opposed to one another. Although all of them are now counted among the greatest painters of the 19th and 20th centuries, it isn’t easy to find the thread that ties their names together. And yet, there is something they share: all the artists named above, along with many others, lived, worked, thought and created on one single hill, on the right bank of the Seine. It’s not every day that the history of art and the story of a hill north of Paris are tied together so closely. When a miracle like that happens, it’s worth a museum. At least, that’s what the founders of the Musée de Montmartre thought, and you’re about to hear their story.
Before we get into the story of the museum, let me recommend reading the article on the history of Montmartre on this site. It will give you the historical background that will help you better understand the period and the people I’m about to talk about.
Once you’ve done that, let’s get going and visit the museum.
Visiting the Musée de Montmartre
At this point in our journey, we’ve reached the destination we came for: the museum that preserves this turbulent era. Unlike the grand, long-established cultural institutions that put France’s famous splendor on display, the Musée de Montmartre celebrates romantic domesticity and intimate, pastoral charm. The museum doesn’t try to be anything more than a fitting tribute to the artists who lived and worked in this neighborhood. Luckily, when it’s this particular neighborhood we’re talking about, that’s more than enough to make it a magical spot for tourists and art lovers alike.
The Musée de Montmartre was founded in 1960, and it only earned official status as a “Musée de France” in 2003. And yet, when the history of a tourist site overlaps with an age-old heritage that holds both uniqueness and universal appeal, the full story becomes that much more fascinating.
Some sites exist to host cultural exhibits; some sites are themselves the tourist attraction; and then there are sites that house valuable works and exhibits within a historic building that’s also a major tourist draw in its own right. The Musée de Montmartre is one of those.
The works are housed across several spaces dating back to the 17th century. The buildings on site are among the oldest and most traditional on the hill, and their architectural style, along with the carefully tended gardens surrounding them, embodies everything about Paris’s peripheral way of life: rooted in vibrant local character, yet offering a refuge of calm, set apart from the bustle of the big city.
As industrialization swept through and took over, the flour mills slowly stopped turning and the vineyards shrank, but the hill remained an island of pastoral calm in the heart of the capital. The painters who worked there in those days found in it an endless source of inspiration, something the museum’s management works hard to preserve to this day.
Buildings at the Museum
The main building is called “La Maison du Bel Air” (according to some sources, the oldest residential building in the area). It’s a charming brick building, surrounded by an expansive, pastoral garden. The garden overlooks the vineyards so closely associated with this place, and it lets you trace the experiences of the artists who worked there, soaking in the intoxicating atmosphere.
The site is divided into three main spaces: the Hôtel Demarne, the workshop of Suzanne Valadon and her son Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955), and the Café Renoir. The gardens were designed in the spirit of Renoir’s paintings, as he found in his surroundings a constant stage for inspiration and a wellspring of creative energy.
As mentioned, the gardens overlook an ancient vineyard whose origins date back to the Middle Ages. In 1933, the vineyard was revived and new vines were planted. If you’re hoping to taste the fruits of this agricultural labor, you might be disappointed to learn that the wine was once crowned by The New York Times as “the worst expensive wine in France.” Well, what do Americans know about nostalgia, anyway?
In 1670, the property was purchased by the famous playwright and actor Claude de La Rose, better known by his stage name Rosimond. In a way, you could see this as an early, unwitting initiation rite into a distinguished line of artists and cultural figures who chose to live within these walls.
The Not-So-Imaginary Invalid
Rosimond, who lived from 1640 to 1686, was a particularly fascinating man. Among the many stories tied to his colorful persona, one of the best known is the tale of his tragic death: he was known for his devotion to the plays of Molière, the greatest French playwright of all time. In particular, Rosimond is remembered for reviving the comedy “The Imaginary Invalid,” written by Molière himself.
One day, after stepping off the stage, our friend suddenly fell ill and died a few hours later. The tragic-comic twist? The character he played also dies shortly after leaving the stage, in the very play “The Imaginary Invalid.” As if that coincidence weren’t enough, when the actor’s family tried to arrange his burial, they ran into resistance from the Christian Church over his “sinful” profession (alongside scientists, philosophers and others who refused to toe the Christian line, actors, especially in comedy, were held in a certain “place of honor”). Who else ran into similar obstacles on the way to their burial? I’ll let you guess.
A Gathering Place for the Wise
Over the years, the house was neglected and lost its standing, but like a mythical phoenix, it rose from the ashes and reclaimed its crown. Many important artists worked there and found in its surroundings a source of inspiration and creative fertility. Greek mythology tells us the muses were fond of springs, mountains and forests. It seems the French muses chose to settle on the hill of Montmartre, right next to the museum’s house.
Since the museum consistently traces the artists who worked and shaped, and were in turn shaped by, the spiritual and social atmosphere of the area, it’s worth briefly reviewing the lives and legacies of the painters who lived in the museum’s house. That will make it easier to understand what makes this place so unique: a museum that celebrates the individuality and particularity of local life, one that served as a kind of “cultural lighthouse” for French and European art as a whole.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
A relentless optimist; a man with a range of talents spanning several branches of the arts; a painter and sculptor who shaped and defined the Impressionist movement; and the man who, more than anyone before him, managed to capture living motion on a painted surface.
In September 1873, in a move typical of the artists of his time, Renoir left the city center and settled into an attic apartment in the Montmartre district. His time there was extraordinarily productive and is often considered the peak of his Impressionist period. His best-known paintings from this time, “Luncheon on the Grass” and “Bal du Moulin de la Galette,” were part of the professional harvest he reaped during his years in the neighborhood. The latter painting, incidentally, offers a window into the bustling life of Montmartre and depicts a bourgeois dance near a well-known windmill, painted red…
As mentioned, the Montmartre gardens were designed in the spirit of Renoir’s work, which he captured in several of his paintings, including “The Swing.” The museum’s café, named after the painter, is further proof of his importance. Beyond his influence on French Impressionism, Renoir was, without question, one of the figures most closely tied to this historic neighborhood. In 1876, he settled into Rosimond’s house and began a new lineage of artists who would go on to live there.
The Cursed Trio
One of the museum’s most delightful attractions, and one that draws plenty of visitors, is the reconstructed studio apartment of the artists Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo and André Utter. The three were gifted artists with a rather questionable family bond (Maurice was Suzanne’s son by an unknown father; André was her second husband and Maurice’s stepfather), and they became known for their constant quarrels, their grand reconciliations, and their frequent escapes into alcoholism. Well, you can’t choose your family.
Between one quarrel and the next festive reconciliation, the three turned out to be pretty fine painters. The studio apartment where they worked is considered an integral part of the museum. Sadly, most of the traces they left behind did not survive the passage of time. But they got lucky: thanks to a faithful reconstruction and ongoing restoration work, the museum’s team managed to capture the atmosphere that once filled the little house, casting a unique light on the lively bohemian spirit of the three.
Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) was a groundbreaking artist in many respects. In a world where categorical distinctions were rigid and clear-cut, Valadon’s free spirit marked her as ahead of her time in eclecticism, and she refused to identify, openly or implicitly, with any single artistic movement or tradition.
She was the first woman to exhibit her work at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts salon in Montmartre. She started out as a model for other painters, hoping to learn their craft by watching them work, and became an unwitting theorist who pushed back against academic perspective and artistic idealization. Suzanne Valadon became a feminist icon (even though she never called herself a feminist) and a trailblazing painter.
Maurice Utrillo
Suzanne’s son, Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955) was a painter of cityscapes and a native of the neighborhood. His success story could easily serve as fodder for 21st-century self-help books. Born to an unknown father and abandoned by his parents (Maurice was raised by his grandmother), he dropped out of school and fell into heavy drinking, and his future as a young man did not look promising at the start.
Luckily, his mother decided to teach him to paint, hoping to wean him off drinking. While wandering the streets of Paris in frustration, he used to sell his artwork to local tourists, who liked his paintings for their lack of mannerism and dialectical complexity. Still, it was only after World War I that he gained official recognition.
His works were shown in respected exhibitions, and his aesthetic approach became widely admired. Being named to the Legion of Honor was the final seal on his greatness. His marriage turned out well, and his life’s path led him to great success.
His work is known for a simplicity free of non-figurative distortions on one hand, yet full of subjective poetry and individualism on the other. Attempts to place him firmly within a single aesthetic movement failed, thanks to the artist’s spirit within him, which refused strict academic classification. Whether in his somber, melancholy period, his admired “White Period,” or the cheerful naivety of his colorful period, his works offered an honest and bold window into his turbulent emotions. It was his personal expression and unique touch, more than any group affiliation, that gave Utrillo his name and his standing.
André Utter
The third, lesser-known member of the trio. André Utter (1886-1948) was born in Paris to parents from Alsace. He began his “artistic career” on the other side of the easel, as a model for Suzanne Valadon’s paintings. In her well-known painting “Adam and Eve” (French: Adam et Ève), for instance, André “played” the role of Adam.
In 1913, shortly before he was drafted into the army, André and Suzanne married in a modest ceremony. After returning to civilian life, Utter became his wife’s professional manager, and even after their divorce he remained part of her life until her death in 1938.
He became a known French artist thanks to his landscape paintings inspired by his home region, his still lifes, and the many portraits he painted throughout his life. He also earned recognition for designing theater sets. His drawings were sold at exhibitions organized by his wife, while a solo exhibition he put together did not succeed. To this day, Utter is known mainly for his tangled romantic ties with Suzanne Valadon.
Émile Bernard
One of the most prominent figures who lived and worked in the old hilltop estate. Émile Bernard (1868-1941) was an art theorist, writer, critic and painter with a visionary spirit. While his predecessors defy easy placement on an artistic timeline because of their lack of a coherent direction, Émile identified over the course of his life with many movements and currents, some of which were shaped in dialogue with his own work.
Bernard was known for his pluralistic nature and cultural openness. A world tour in 1893 included visits to Florence and Rome in Italy. From Italy he traveled to Turkey (visiting Smyrna and Samos), and later visited Jaffa and Jerusalem, Alexandria, and finally Cairo, the city where he settled. Among other projects, he created a fresco for the Cathedral of Cairo. His multicultural outlook was also reflected in his marriage to Hanenah Saati, a native of Lebanon, during a period when he began adopting local customs and dressing as an Arab. At the same time, he immersed himself in reading the philosophical writings of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Hegel.
His work is marked by great eclecticism and pioneering contributions to many artistic movements. The main post-Impressionist styles he explored were Cloisonnism (the use of flat, two-dimensional shapes outlined in thick black lines and filled with distinct colors) and Synthetism (a blend of the artist’s spirit and emotional movements with tangible realism, using only two-dimensional forms). His close ties with “the greats of his generation,” including van Gogh, Gauguin and Cézanne, made him a central figure on the artistic scene and a source of local pride.
And that’s not all…
Other artists who walked the historic halls of the building included Raoul Dufy (a Fauvist painter known for his use of vivid colors and decorative art), Othon Friesz (a multidisciplinary artist, associated mainly with the Fauvist movement), Dimitrios Galanis (a painter born in Athens, known for emotional depth and expertise in capturing the human form), Francisque Poulbot (a poster designer, draftsman and illustrator), Léon Bloy (a Catholic theologian, writer, essayist and satirist) and Pierre Reverdy (a poet who experimented with Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism).
Administrative trivia
The museum’s collections belong to the “Old Montmartre Society” (French: Le Vieux Montmartre), an organization founded in 1886 to preserve the local heritage. The society holds extensive documentation and records, unique photographs, and historical artifacts from the bohemian and cabaret era. In 1967, the “Old Montmartre Society” was officially recognized as providing a public service.
In 2011, management of the site was handed over to the company Kléber Rossillon, which specializes in managing and maintaining historic sites. The company is leading a large-scale renovation project, which so far has updated the facade of Suzanne Valadon’s studio and several other display spaces.
In 2003, the museum received a notable administrative distinction: the title “Musée de France” (a somewhat generic name, if I may say so) was granted to it about a year after the designation was defined by law. As of the latest update, the list of institutions holding this title includes 1,222 museums, reflecting the enormous regional range, the diverse social ties, and the country’s commitment to preserving and shaping its cultural and general history.
Musée de Montmartre: Summary
A visit to Montmartre is a must for anyone traveling to Paris. But such a visit wouldn’t be complete without the broad historical context that shaped the character of the place. The museum offers an accurate, if slightly naive, picture of the enchanting life once lived in this quiet neighborhood. The authentic experience here doesn’t come from the presence of complex, historically significant works. On the contrary, it’s the local, subjective and personal context that makes the museum so enjoyable to explore.
If you want to experience Paris in its full glory, remember its days as an unrivaled cultural powerhouse, and feel for a moment the vibrant artistic and intellectual scene that defined the city during those centuries, the Musée de Montmartre is the best place for you to spend your time.
Planning to fit in another museum on your trip? I’ve gathered all the museums in Paris into one guide, sorted by type and with links to tickets.
FAQ
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