The Overlooked Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris

The Overlooked Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris

If You Hate Impressionism & Claude Monet, then Keep Away From the Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris & Stop Reading This Article!

Just a warning to those who have landed on this page and hate impressionism art and Claude Monet. Close this page NOW! Because this article is about the incredible Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris that has the largest Claude Monet Art Collection in the world!!

Let’s try to figure out why the masses overlook this Paris Gem

This is a fantastic question! To be honest, I am not sure why the D’Orsay Museum gets all the attention! Yes, the Musee D’Orsay is incredible, fantastic and is a Paris MUST! But the Marmottan Monet Museum is just as incredible!!! And even more so if you LOVE Claude Monet!

Musee Marmottan Monet is a beautiful gem located in the chic Passy neighborhood of Paris, in the 16th arrondissement. The museum was once a hunting lodge but today the impressive building houses an incredible collection of French 19th century Impressionism paintings.

The Claude Monet Collection at the Musee Marmottan Monet

The Marmottan Monet Museum owns and showcases over 300 impressionism and post-impressionism artworks. One hundred of these are Claude Monet paintings!!! The Monet collection came from Monet’s friends and son, Michel Monet. The spectacular Monet paintings are located in the rooms on the lower level of the Marmottan museum.

The Claude Monet artworks are organized in chronological order so that you can follow the progression of Monet’s artistic career. You will view paintings starting from his early, experimental years and right up until his iconic water-lilies from his final years.

Many of his iconic paintings are here at the Marmottan museum. You will view paintings from the Cathédrale de Rouen series, the Impression, Soleil Levant (1872), his iconic Water-Lilies and more!

The Musee Marmottan Monet Also Boasts the Best Berthe Morisot Collection in the World!

Berthe Morisot was a successful and highly talented female impressionist. In fact, she belonged to the inner circle of the 19th century French impressionists. Morisot exhibited with the impressionism giants such as Monet, Renoir, Degas, Manet and Pissarro. All these painters highly regarded her as an artist.

Why is Berthe Morisot Less Famous Than Her Male Counterparts?

Unlike many other artists, Berthe Morisot was a successful artist in her lifetime. She exhibited in the Paris Salon and art patrons sought out her paintings. However after she died, art historians forgot about her achievements for decades. They omitted her contribution to the impressionism movement and she was unheard of for a very long time.

Also, Berthe Morisot came from a wealthy family and she did not need to sell her artworks in order to make a living. Most of her paintings stayed within the family and were not in public circulation. This further adding to her later obscurity.

Much later, Berthe Morisot’s descendants decided to donate a huge collection of her artworks to the Marmottan Monet museum. Today this museum houses the largest collection of Morisot’s paintings in the world. Morisot’s paintings are full of color and beauty. Here you will see 25 oil paintings, 75 water-colors and few pastels and drawings. It is a fabulous collection!

A Beautiful Collection of the Impressionism Art

In addition to Monet’s and Morisot’s impressive art collections, the Marmottan Monet Museum showcases a fantastic collection of the famous impressionists such as Pissarro, Sisley, Renoir & Degas to name a few.

A Fascinating Story about Marmottan’s Greatest Art Theft in 1985

This is a true story!!

In 1985, five masked gunmen broke into the Marmottan Monet museum. Two of the robbers bought legitimate tickets and entered the museum as ordinary visitors. They then held 9 unarmed museum security guards and 40 visitors at gunpoint! The other three robbers removed the paintings from the walls. They then successfully left the museum and disappeared with the paintings !!

The robbers managed to steal nine impressionism paintings, including Claude Monet’s Impression Sunrise, the painting from which the impressionism movement got its name! The stolen paintings were valued at around 12.5 million dollars!!!!

These paintings were so famous that art critics realized that it would be impossible for the robbers to resell them. This led to speculation that perhaps a rich art collector instigated the robbery for his own private art collection!

Five Years Later the Paintings Were Found Safe & Sound

After a tip-off in 1990, the police were led to a professional Japanese gangster named Shuinichi Fujikuma. This man was a known criminal & had spent time in a French prison. It was in the prison that he and two other French criminals planned the art theft idea.

When the police raided Fujikuma’s home, they found a museum catalog and the stolen paintings circled! Five years after the robbery, the police found all nine paintings along with other stolen artworks.

Marmotten Monet Museum security and all other art museums have beefed up their security systems since then!

Don’t be like the masses that overlook the Marmottan Monet museum!

Make sure you visit this world-class Impressionism museum. It is far less exhausting than the amazing Musee D’Orsay and just as incredible!

Tip: If you have the energy & time, pop into the nearby picturesque Passy cemetery and visit the graves of Berthe Morisot and Édouard Manet .

Practical Information about the Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris

Times:

Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm (last admissions: 5.30 pm)
Late night: Thursday, to 9 pm (last admission: 8.30 pm)
Closed Mondays, 1 May, 25 December, and 1 January

Public Transport:

Métro: line 9, stop: La Muette or Ranelagh
RER: line C, stop: Boulainvilliers

Address: 2, rue Louis-Boilly, 75016 Paris – France

For more information about the museum and current temporary exhibitions showing, press here.