Banker Edouard André and his society painter wife, Nélie Jacquemart, traveled the world amassing their treasures. Their splendid 19th-century town- house – which, when glimpsed from the sweeping Boulevard Haussmann, looks quite unremarkable – positively drips with art and atmosphere.
The library is hung with Dutch paintings, including portraits by Rembrandt and Van Dyck, while the superb upstairs “Italian Museum” boasts Uccello’s St George and the Dragon, Botticelli’s Virgin and Child, Mantegna’s Ecce Homo, and sculptures by Donatello and Della Robbia.
The pink Venetian Room is crowned with a grand coffered ceiling by Murano-born Mocetto. Other rooms house works by French artists Boucher, David, Chardin, and Nattier, and the double spiral staircase is presided over by Tiepolo frescoes depicting the arrival of Henri III in Venice.
The Smoking Room displays Nélie’s eclectic collection of curios picked up on her passages through India, Persia, and the British Isles, and the private apartments include Edouard’s anteroom, housing his portrait painted by his wife ten years before they were married.
Practical Information
Address 158 Bd Haussmann, Champs-Elysées;
Getting There Métro: Miromesnil, St-Philippe-du-Roule; bus: 22, 28, 43, 52, 54, 80, 83, 84, 93.
Opening Times 10am–6pm daily.