Bought by Jules Marmottan from the Duc de Valmy in 1882, this hunting lodge close to the Bois de Boulogne was converted into a town house by Marmottan's son Paul. The latter died in 1932, leaving the Académie des Beaux-Arts all his collections, his town house and his library - now the Marmottan Library - in Boulogne.

While his father's interests extended mainly to German, Flemish and Italian primitive painters, Paul's enthusiasm for the Napoleonic period led to the acquisition of Empire painting, sculpture and furniture: examples include chased bronzes by Thomire, chairs by George Jacob and paintings by Carle Vernet, Louis Boilly, François-Xavier Fabre and others.

Portrait de Napoléon

In 1957 Mme Victorine Donop de Monchy presented the Marmottan Museum with part of the collection she had inherited from her father, Doctor Georges de Bellio. Physician and friend to the Impressionist painters, Georges de Bellio was the owner of works by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley - and notably of Monet's Impression: Sunrise, from which the Impressionist movement took its name.

It was probably this exceptional donation that led Michel Monet, the painter's youngest son, to leave the Académie the family property at Giverny and the works by his father still in his possession: 80 oils, four pastels and three drawings, together with sketchbooks and youthful caricatures. As a result the Marmottan Museum now houses the world's largest collection of works by Monet, in addition to the painter's personal collection, notably including works by his friends Boudin, Caillebotte, Guillaumin, Jongkind, Manet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir and Rodin.
In 1980 Daniel Wildenstein enriched the museum with his father's extraordinary collection of illuminations: 228 mediaeval miniatures taken from antiphonaries, missals and books of hours.

Henri Duhem, a lawyer practising in Douai, gave up his legal career to devote himself to painting. Like Gustave Caillebotte, he was also a passionate collector and acquired a representative body of works by Boudin, Carrière, Corot, Gauguin, Guillaumin, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Rodin, Lebourg and Le Sidaner. His wife, Nelly Sergeant-Duhem left this collection to the Académie in 1987.

Since September 1997 the Marmottan Museum has also been showing the 140 works comprising the Denis and Annie Rouart Foundation, including many paintings by Berthe Morisot and works by Degas, Manet, Renoir, Monet, Corot and others.

The Marmottan Museum's role as an Impressionist shrine is now more marked than ever; under the impetus provided by its Director its participation in many national and international exchange schemes allows it to present on average two major temporary exhibitions every year.

Rez de chausée