Museum Jacquemart-André

Edouard André was an officer in the Imperial Guards and one of the most popular men at court. And in 1869, he built a handsome residence for himself in the newly laid out elegant Boulevard Haussmann. As of 1871 he became an assiduous collector of fine objets d’art.

A decade later he married the well-known Parisian painter Nellie Jacquemart, whose fine eye made her an ideal companion in his search for the rare. Their collection includes tapestries, rugs, furniture and manuscripts but principally paintings and sculpture . Following the death of her husband in 1894, Nellie Jacquemart continued to collect and visited such places like India, Egypt and Greece in the search for acquisitions. Following her death in 1914 the collection was bequeathed to the Institut de France with the proviso that this museum be created.

As the Frick Collection does in New York, the Jacquemart-André Museum presents its collection in a magnificent private mansion from the end of the 19th century.

This somptuous palace, owned by the Institut de France, allows the visitor to discover magnificent, intimate areas. They are characteristic of Edouard André and his wife, Nellie Jacquemart: large function rooms, monumental staircase, winter garden, private apartments, “Italian Museum”…
United by their passion for art, they gathered one of the most beautiful private collections in France, concerning especially the Italian Renaissance, the great Flemish painters and the 18th century french School. The ceilings of the staircase and three of the rooms of this museum are decorated with Tiepolo frescoes.

His French contemporaries of the eighteenth century hang in the ground-floor rooms as well as his fellow Venetian, Canaleno.
The collection contains sevreral Rembrandts and, best of all, fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian genius in the works of Bonicelli, Donatello, Mantegna and Uccello, Flemish work by Memling, Massys and Van Dyck, Dutch paintings by Hals, Rembrandt and Ruisdael, and French paintings by Lancret, Chardin, Boucher, Fragonard and David. On the stairway is Tiepolo’s fresco of the Reception of Henri III in Venice depicting a stupendous party.

An audioguide, available in six languages, is freely provided for each visitor. It presents the history and the works of art of the Museum. Unique in Paris, this visit is an essential complement to the Louvre.

Located in the dining room which is decorated with tapestries and a Tiepolo ceiling, the Café Jacquemart-André offers a light and high quality food, from lunch time to closing time.