10 Famous Artists' Houses to Visit in France
Museums are reopening so it’s now time to get your Art Dose! Artists houses are a real invitation to dream and escape, a way to feel the artist’s creative process. Here is the editor’s selection in France:
Eugène Delacroix’s House in Paris
The Musée National Eugène-Delacroix, on Place de Fürstenberg, occupies the great Romantic painter’s apartment and his studio, in a garden behind the building.
Musée Eugène Delacroix
6 Rue de Furstemberg, 75006 Paris
Gustave Moreau’s House in Paris
This house/artist’s studio in the 9th arrondissement houses the collections of painter Gustave Moreau and respects the original museum layout designed by the artist.
Musée Gustave Moreau
14 rue de La Rochefoucauld, 75009 Paris www.musee-moreau.fr
Claude Monet’s House in Giverny
For over 40 years, until his death in 1926 , Giverny was Claude Monet’s home , his site of creation and his masterpiece . A world of senses, of colors and of memories, the house in which the artist and his family lived notably contains his studio-sitting room and his exceptional collection of Japanese prints.
Fondation Claude Monet
84 Rue Claude Monet, 27620 Giverny
Antoine Bourdelle’s House in Paris
It’s in 1885 that famous French sculptor Antoine Bourdelle settles in on 16 impasse du Maine. Behind him, he leaves a studio-museum nestled in Paris 15th arrondissement, a stone’s throw from the Montparnasse area. As the artist wanted, you can find permanent collections, in the studios he worked and lived in.
Musée Bourdelle
16/18, rue Antoine Bourdelle, 75015 Paris, www.bourdelle.paris.fr
Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s House in Cagnes-sur-Mer
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) moved to the Côte d'Azur in 1903 and had his villa built in the Collettes area in 1907, thus saving an olive grove centenary of the slaughter. The museum exhibits his studio, as well as a more unknown part of Renoir’s work, sculpture.
Musée Renoir
Chemin des Collettes, 06800 Cagnes-sur-Mer
Vincent Van Gogh’s House in Auvers-sur-Oise
Vincent van Gogh spent only 70 days in Auvers-sur-Oise. Yet he was extraordinarily prolific in this short time, because he was inspired by the picturesque site with its inhabitants and surroundings to paint close to 80 canvases, which come alive for us in the winding streets of the village.
Maison de Van Gogh
52 Rue du Général de Gaulle, 95430 Auvers-sur-Oise
Paul Cézanne’s House in Aix-en-Provence
Cezanne was born in Aix in 1839 and died in Aix in 1906. He was always deeply attached to his native Provence. Incessantly, he painted the nature of Provence. His precious landscapes are kept today in great international museums or in private collections.
Atelier de Cézanne
9, avenue Paul Cézanne, 13090 Aix-en-Provence
Auguste Rodin’s Villa in Meudon
Rodin’s former home conveys a sense of his daily life. The villa with its dining room, drawing room and sculpture studio was reconstructed from period photographs in 1997, and has preserved the atmosphere of the artist’s home.
Musée Rodin
9, avenue Auguste-Rodin, 92190 Meudon www.musee-rodin.fr
Constantin Brancusi’s Studio in Paris
From 1916 until his death, Brancusi worked in various studios, at first 8, then 11 Impasse Ronsin in Paris's 15th arrondissement. He used two and then three studios, knocking down the walls to create the first two rooms in which he exhibited his work. In 1936 and 1941, he added two other adjoining areas, which he used for works in progress, and to house his workbench and tools.
Atelier Brancusi
Centre Pompidou, rue Beaubourg , 75004 Paris
Honoré de Balzac’s House in Paris
Nestled on the hillsides of Passy, the House of Balzac is the only one of the Parisian residences of the novelist which survives today. It was in the studyroom that Balzac corrected, from 1840 to 1847, La Comédie humaine. Through the presentation of portraits of the artist or his characters, paintings, engravings, drawings, and using an original scenography, the museum encourages the visitor to wonder about Balzac and suggests original paths for lead to the discovery as well as to the rereading of La Comédie humaine.
Maison de Balzac
47, Rue Raynouard, 75016 Paris