Art Museums in France

L’ Atelier des Lumières, located at 38 rue Saint-Maur in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, is a digital art center that opened its doors on April 13, 2018. This unique venue offers immersive digital exhibitions, where thousands of digitized works of art are displayed in high resolution and set in motion to the rhythm of music.

The Louvre Museum in Paris is the largest art museum in the world. The museum is located inside the Louvre Palace which was once the residence of the French kings. It began its existence as a 12th-century fortress and its parts can still be seen in today’s Louvre. The palace was turned into a public

The Musée Marmottan Monet museum is one of the museums of fine arts in Paris. Art historian Paul Marmottan donated his city palace and art collection to the Académie des beaux-arts in 1932. In addition to the collection of Jules and Paul Marmottan, the museum has the largest collection in the world

Dalí Paris, previously known as Espace Dalí, is a museum situated in Paris, France. It is conveniently located near the renowned Place du Tertre, in the Montmartre area. This location is not only famous for its artistic history but also for its vibrant and bohemian atmosphere, making it an interesting area to explore before or after your visit to the museum.

The Jacquemart-André Museum (Musee Jacquemart-André) is a museum in a former private hotel (city palace) in Paris. Its collection is brought together by a private collector; Édouard André in 1875. He mainly collected works by old Italian masters, which he bought with his wife Nélie Jacquemart. His w

Built on the site of a former bowling alley, this overwhelming building opened in 2014. It was designed by the famous visionary architect Frank O. Gehry from Los Angeles in close cooperation with Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods company. The design was

The City of Paris Fine Art Museum is housed in the Petit Palais in Paris, which was built for the 1900 World's Fair (the 1900 Exposition Universelle ("universal exhibition")) by the architect Charles Girault. The museum holds and exhibits a large collection of ancient and modern art, including paint

Musée national Marc Chagall (The Marc-Chagall Museum, national museum of the Marc-Chagall biblical message) is a national museum in Nice that is dedicated to the work of the painter Marc Chagall. Chagnall was a Russian-French artist of Belarusian Jewish origin. He was an early modernist and was ass

The Musée National du Moyen Âge museum, also known as Musée de Cluny, holds six spectacular tapestries called The Lady and the Unicorn. The building itself combines both Gothic and Renaissance elements. It was built around 1485 and converted into a museum after the death of Alexandre du Sommerard, a

The Center Georges Pompidou, or just Centre Pompidou is a leading center for modern art in Paris. It was opened in February 1977, by former French President Pompidou, who wanted a large public center in Paris where all forms of modern art and cultural expressions could find a home. This inside-out b

The Musée des arts et métiers (Museum of arts and professions) is a museum in Paris that houses the collection of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, which was founded in 1794. The museum has a collection of more than 80,000 objects, of which 40,000 are exhibited in the museum, including

The Picasso Museum in Paris (Musée Picasso Paris) is housed in the Hotel Salé, where it gives an overview of the work of Pablo Picasso. The collection by Picasso is the largest collection in the world of works by Picasso, who spent a large part of his life in France and is organized thematically. In

The Musée Nissim de Camondo is a museum that is located on the edge of the Parc Monceau in Paris. The museum is housed in the 20th-century residence of the Camondo family. The former private collection of this family is exhibited here, which mainly consists of 18th-century French furniture. This col

The Grand Palais is a Beaux-Arts building that was erected for the 1900 World Exposition. Nowadays it houses many exhibitions beneath its huge Art Nouveau glass roof. The complex comprises of several separate galeries nationales (individual exhibition rooms) and also of the Palace de la Découverte,

Musee des Beaux-Arts (The Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon) is a municipal museum of fine arts in Lyon and is one of the largest art museums in France. The museum is housed in a former Benedictine convent of the 17th and 18th century. The Musee des Beaux-Arts holds diverse collections consisting of objec

The Musée des Augustins is a fine arts museum in Toulouse. The museum holds a collection of sculpture and paintings from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. The paintings find their origin throughout France, the sculptures represent the Occitan culture of the region with many Romanesque sculp

Palais de Tokyo in Paris is the largest centre in Europe dedicated to contemporary art exhibitions. Having no permanent exhibitions, the place is very dynamic and always offers something new with alternative forms of art, with its main focus on the emerging French and international art scene. Apart

The Musée du Luxembourg is a museum in Paris. It was the first European museum to exhibit art in public for the first time, and the first museum for contemporary art. Nowadays it is mainly used for temporary exhibitions with works by both classical as well as modern artists.

Musée National des Arts Asiatiques - Musée Guimet is a French museum of Asian art in Paris. Although the museum now covers almost all of East Asia, focus is on archaeological pieces and classical oriental art, with few to no contemporary or ethnological pieces. There is however an extensive textile

Musée Bourdelle is a museum in Paris that is located in the former residence and studio of the French sculptor Émile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929). The museum exhibits an important art collection of his work. It was founded in 1949. Like Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle wanted to leave a museum at t

The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain, MAMAC) is a museum in Nice in France that is dedicated to modern art and contemporary art. The museum holds and displays a collection of works of art that are considered as avant-garde, from the late 1950s to the p

Musée Lumière is a museum in Lyon that is devoted to Auguste and Louis Lumière, inventors of the cinématographe and fathers of the cinema. The museum is founded especially to honour their contribution to filmmaking. The musuem is housed in the house of the Lumière family. Visitors can discover the i

The Musée Cernuschi is a museum in Paris that is dedicated to Asian arts with a collection that focuses on the Far East: China, Japan, Korea. The Italian-French politician and economist Henri Cernuschi had left his collections in 1896 to the city of Paris, after which the Musée Cernuschi was opened

The Musée de Montmartre museum in Paris maps the bohemian history of Montmartre (a large hill in Paris). It is located in a building that dates back to the 17th century where painters such as Renoir lived and worked. The collection consists of a series of paintings, posters, photographs and various

Musée Galliera, or Palais Galliera, The City of Paris Fashion Museum is a museum in Paris that is dedicated to fashion. The museum has only 550 m² of exhibition space available in five rooms in the relatively small Palais Galliera. The collection includes 30,000 garments of the last three centuries,

The Bemberg Foundation (Fondation Bemberg) is a major art gallery in Toulouse that is housed in Hôtel d'Assézat, a Renaissance hôtel particulier. The Fondation Bemberg is one of the major private collections of art in Europe. It is the private collection of Georges Bemberg (1915 - 2011) that include

The Musée Cognacq-Jay is an art museum in Paris that was founded by Marie-Louise Jaÿ (1838-1925) and her husband Ernest Cognacq (1839-1928). The founders and owners of the La Samaritaine department store built a large collection of valuable furniture and works of art from between 1900 and 1925. The

The Musée de la Cinémathèque is a museum of cinema history in Paris that illustrates the living history of moving pictures and pre-cinema, from their origins to the present day all over the world. The collection the museum holds and exhibits comprises more that 5,000 objects related to movies, inclu

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs is a museum for applied art and design in Paris. The museum was opened in 1905 in the west wing of the Louvre and now holds a collection of around 150,000 objects, of which 6,000 are presented to the public in its exhibitions. It is subdivided into chronological departm

The Panthéon Bouddhique in Paris is related to Musée Guimet. It is the part of the Guimet Museum that aims to put the original plan of Emile Guimet into practice to increase the knowledge of Eastern religions - in this case of Buddhism from China and Japan - with interesting objects in the field of

The Zadkine Museum (Musée Zadkine) is a small museum in Paris with works by Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967), a Russian-born artist who lived in France. The museum is located in the house and studio where he lived and worked from 1928 until his death. There are around 400 sculptures, gouaches, works on pap

The Musée des Monuments Français is a museum in Paris that is housed in the Palais de Chaillot, an Art Deco palace that was built on the same spot where a similar palace already stood before. The original palace was built for the World's Fair 1878 while the present-day one was built for the EXPO 193

The Museum of Jewish Art and History (Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme) is a museum in Paris that is housed in the Hôtel de St-Aignan in Le Marais, where it brings together a number of collections that were previously spread throughout Paris. It is dedicated to French-Jewish culture from the Mi

Musée des Arts Asiatiques de Nice is the Asian Arts Museum of Nice in Parc Phœnix, which houses collections of Asian arts. It was inaugurated in 1981 and was designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. Its collections are from private and public collections, reflecting the important civilizations in

The Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs is a museum in Lyon that is housed in two 18th century hôtels particuliers and actually consists of two museum: the Museum of Textiles (Musée des Tissus) and the Decorative Arts Museum (Musée des arts décoratifs). The museum holds a very large collection o

The Lascaris Palace, museum of ancient musical instruments (French: Palais Lascaris, musée des instruments de musique anciens) is an old aristocratic palace and musical instrument museum in the old city center of Nice in France. It dates from the first half of the 17th century and houses a collectio

The Musée Gustave-Moreau (Gustave Moreau Museum) is an art museum in Paris that is dedicated to the works of the painter Gustave Moreau (1826-1898). The building that houses the museum was originally Moreau's apartment. In 1895, the artist had it converted into a studio and a museum for his works. T

The Massena Museum (Musée Masséna) is a state museum in Nice. that has since 1921 been displaying art from the Belle Époque, as well as regional art and history of the Côte d'Azur. In the Masséna Museum, painting, sculpture, arts and crafts, Belle Epoque furniture and furnishings are on display on t

The Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) is a center for contemporary photographic art in Paris that holds and exhibits a collection dedicated to contemporary creation. It consists of around 20,000 works of art, mostly photographs (silver and digital photography) and videos. The Maison europée

The Matisse Museum (Museé Matisse) is a museum in Nice that is devoted to the French painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor Henri Matisse. This Matisse Museum holds one of the largest collection of Matisse in the world, tracing his artistic beginnings as well as his evolution through his las

The Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume (National Jeu de Paume Gallery) is a contemporary art museum in Paris. The building was built in 1861 under Napoleon III and was initially used as a sports hall for the ball game Jeu de Paume, nowadays also called real tennis. From 1909 onward, the rooms served

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice (Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret) is an art museum in Nice that is housed in a Neo-renaissance mansion, the former private mansion of Russian Princess Elizaveta Vasilievna Kochubey built in 1878. Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret houses a collection of art spanning the

The Musée en Herbe is a museum in Paris that organizes educative courses on artistic, scientific and civic themes, designed specifically for children. Games of observation, imagination and identification allow children to discover works of art and exhibits. The exhibitions are based on the works of

The Musée national Eugène Delacroix (Musée Delacroix) is a museum in Paris that is dedicated to the French Romantic artist regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school Eugène Delacroix. The museum is located in the former home of Delacroix, where both his studio and apartment can be visited.

The Musée des beaux-arts de Marseille is an art museum in Marseille that is housed in the right wing of the Palais Longchamp that was built by the architect Henri-Jacques Espérandieu between 1862 and 1869. The museum holds a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the 16th to the 19th

Art Ludique - The Museum is a museum in Paris that is dedicated to contemporary art arising from the entertainment industry. The museum holds several temporary exhibitions each year and is preparing a permanent exhibition with the most influential figurative narrative artists of the last few centuri

The Musée des Abattoirs (museum of slaughterhouse) is a museum in Toulouse and housed in a former slaughterhouse from 1823. The museum holds a collection of Modern and Contemporary art. The Modern collection focuses on artists who were active from the 1950s with paintings including CoBrA, Art Brut,

The Halle Saint-Pierre is a museum dedicated to naive art) in Paris, located at the foot of the Montmartre hill in an old Baltard style market hall, which once housed a market and then a school. The Halle Saint-Pierre organizes three or four temporary exhibitions a year related to folk art, naive ar

The Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon is a contemporary art museum in Lyon and presents works created by artists directly on the site. The permanent collection of the museum is the largest European group installations ever assembled in a museum. Besides this permanent collection, the Musée d'Art cont

The Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation is a private foundation in Paris that is dedicated to the memory, preservation and enhancement of the photographic work of Henri Cartier-Bresson (a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film) and his wi

The Musée international d'Art naïf Anatole Jakovsky (Anatole Jakovsky International Museum of Naive Art) is a museum in Nice that exhibits 18th until 21st century works of art, with a focus on naive art. The collection of the Anatole Jakovsky International Museum of Naive Art contains paintings, scu

Musée Cantini (The Cantini Museum) is an art museum in Marseille that is mostly dedicated to paintings from the first half of the 20th century. Musée Cantini holds one of the largest collections of art from the 1900-1960 period. The colleciton includes works by Charles Camoin, Raoul Dufy, Albert Gle

The Musée national Jean-Jacques Henner is an art museum in Paris that houses works by Jean Jacques Henner, a French painter, noted for his use of sfumato and chiaroscuro in painting nudes, religious subjects, and portraits. The house is decorated with personal items such as furniture, carpets and ha

The Musée Grobet-Labadié is a museum in Marseille that is housed in a 19th-century hôtel particulier owned by the wealthy family whose collection it displays. The mansion was built for Alexandre Labadié (1814-1892) who was a rich industrialist and merchant.

The American socialite, fashion icon and philanthropist Countess Mona von Bismarck donated her Parisian townhouse and the majority of her estate to found the Mona Bismarck Foundation. The Mona Bismarck American Center in Paris aims to engage visitors in a dialogue with the depth and diversity of the

La Gaîté Lyrique is a digital arts and modern music centre located on the site of the former Théâtre de la Gaîté in Paris. It includes the following performance venues: Large Hall (Grande Salle), the Small Hall (Petite Salle), and the Auditorium. Furthermore it includes a resource centre which funct

Fondation Le Corbusier is a foundation and archive honoring the work of architect Le Corbusier (1887–1965) that is housed in Villa La Roche, also Maison La Roche, in Paris. La Roche commissioned Le Corbusier to build a villa as well as a gallery to house his art collection. It now houses a museum th

The Paris Observatory (Observatoire de Paris or Observatoire de Paris-Meudon) is the most important observatory in France and one of the largest astronomy centers in the world. The historic main building is sitauted on the left bank of the Seine in the center of Paris. The observatory was establishe

Musée des arts africains, océaniens et amérindiens (The Museum of African, Oceanic and Native American Art), is a museum in Marseille that is located on the second floor of the Vieille Charité. The museum presents works exclusively from the African, Oceanian and Native American continents.

Institut d'Art Contemporain is a contemporary art center located in Villeurbanne, in Lyon. The Institute of Contemporary Art in Villeurbanne holds a collection of contemporary works by artists such as Alighiero Boetti, Daniel Buren and Yona Friedman.

Villa Arson is a national center for contemporary art in Nice in France that contains an art museum, an elite school, a media library and a research institution for contemporary art. The complete area of 20,000 m² includes exhibition space, workshops, student accommodation and gardens.

Musée de l'Affiche de TOUlouse - MATOU is a musuem in Toulouse that is devoted to advertising posters. The musuem holds a collection of nearly 20,000 advertising posters and organises 3 or 4 temporary exhibitions a year.

The Museum of Photography Charles Negre is a museum in Nice that organises temporary monographic exhibitions on the biggest names in photography along with theme-based exhibitions that present all the trends from the earliest photographs to digital pictures. One of the missions of the Museum of Phot

Musée d'art contemporain de Marseille (Marseille's Museum of Contemporary Art, "MAC") is a museum dedicated to contemporary art in Marseille. The museum holds a collection works of art from the 1960s to the present. The collection includes almost 800 works, that are based on the collection of the Ca

Galerie des Ponchettes is a gallery that is attached to the MAMAC that is dedicated to contemporary art. The MAMAC conducts an exhibition program of several sections of its collections at the gallery of Ponchettes.

The Galerie de la Marine is a gallery in nice that is dedicated to young emerging artists on the national and international scene of contemporary art. Galerie de la Marine and Villa Arson (also in Nice) are partners for the promotion of young artists graduated from the National School of Art in Nice