Museum Visit

MUSEUM VISIT GROUND FLOOR FIRST FLOOR 1 ANTECHAMBER 5 THE ROMANTIC PORTRAITS ROOM 2 ROOM OF TREASURES 6 THE ORLEANS ROOM 3 GEORGE SAND’S DRAWING ROOM 7 ARY SCHEFFER’S STUDY 4 THE SMALL BLUE DRAWING ROOM 8 THE RENAN ROOM Information Tickets 7 8 Toilets Bookshop 4 Stairs Cloakroom 2 1 Tea Room 6 5 3 4 GREEN HOUSE 3 2 1 ENTRANCE GARDEN STUDIO LARGE STUDIO MUSEUM ENTRANCE rue Chaptal rue Chaptal Built in 1830 in the recently urbanized neighborhood LE MUSÉE DE LA known as La Nouvelle Athènes, this home remained with the descendants of the Ary Scheffer (1795-1858) VIE ROMANTIQUE and Ernest Renan (1823-1892) families until 1983, HOME OF THE when it became a City of Paris Museum that evokes PAINTER the artistic and literary life of the first half of the nineteenth century. Including a paved courtyard ARY SCHEFFER and garden, this “Musée de la Vie romantique” is (1795-1858) built on land adjoining the estate of Count Chaptal that had belonged to the Abbesses of Montmartre. Today, it is one of the last remaining artist’s homes built under the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy. On the ground floor of the house, memorabilia, furniture and portraits that belonged to George Sand (1804-1876) and were bequeathed to the City of Paris in 1923 by her granddaughter Aurore Lauth Sand, evoke the writer and those close to her. On the first floor, the works of the painter Ary Scheffer are presented in all their diversity (portraits, religious and historical paintings, etc.), along with other mementos of the Romantic era. Located on both sides of the alley and oriented toward the north, the two studios are used for temporary exhibitions. To the left of the alley on entering the home is the studio-salon where each Friday Ary Sheffer welcomed the artistic and literary elite (George Sand, Chopin, Delacroix, Rossini, Gounod, Liszt, Pauline Viardot, Tourgueniev), as well as political personalities (Thiers, Béranger, Henri Martin, Daniel Manin, Lamennais). To the right is the painting studio occupied by Ary, his brother Henry and their students and assistants. SERVICES COAT AND BAG ROOM BOOKSTORE SHOP Large bags and backpacks must be Open from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. left in the coat and bag room (free of charge). Suitcases are not accepted. PARTNERSHIPS AND COMPANY EVENTS AUDIO GUIDES For information, contact These guides can be rented for a €5 Marie-Dominique Crabit: fee at the reception desk and [email protected] are available in French, English, Spanish and French Sign Language. FRIENDS OF THE MUSEUM 16, rue Chaptal, 75009 Paris CULTURAL ACTIVITIES [email protected] Mandatory reservation for groups and information on stories, TEA ROOM uided tours and self-guided visits: “A Tea in the Garden” reservations.museevieromantique Open daily except Mondays @paris.fr and certain holidays from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. MUSÉE DE LA VIE ROMANTIQUE — GROUND FLOOR GROUND FLOOR ANTECHAMBER Born in Dordrecht in 1795, Ary Scheffer Façade of the Ary Scheffer Home Seen from the Garden; Arie-Johannes Lamme, 1865 was of Dutch origin. As a young man, © musée de la Vie romantique / he became one of the leading figures of Roger-Viollet Romanticism in Paris, which apogee was at the Salon of 1827. Starting in 1822, The Chaptal Home, a source of inspi- he taught drawing to the children of ration. Arie-Johannes Lamme, who 1 was a Dutch cousin of the Scheffers the future King Louis-Philippe and occupied an influential position in and the future director of the Boijmans the world of the arts for his historical Museum in Rotterdam, came to study paintings and portraits. He chose to with the brothers in Paris. He painted live on Rue Chaptal, in the heart of an invaluable record of the setting a neighborhood filled with actors, – poetically envisioned as the back- painters and writers. stage of creation – like the scene of Ary Scheffer painting Heavenly Love and Ary Scheffer, Earthly Love in his studio in front of a Thomas Phillips, circa 1840 recumbent sculpture of his mother © musée de la and accompanied by his daughter. Vie romantique / Roger-Viollet Lamme also painted Ary Scheffer’s last studio at Argenteuil, where Scheffer died on June 15, 1858, just one month after he moved there, as well as the master’s house as it looked like when his daughter lived there in 1865. MUSÉE DE LA VIE ROMANTIQUE — GROUND FLOOR ROOM OF TREASURES “I value only those things that Round brooch with swallow, have come to me from people I one of George Sand’s first jewels, which she gave to her granddaughter Aurore love.” Works and objects from the © Rémi Briant / musée de la Nohant estate, handed down to Vie romantique / Roger-Viollet George Sand from her grandmother, 2Madame Dupin de Francueil, née Modest but cherished treasures Aurore de Saxe, evoke the writer’s A pen, boxes and stamps with the family environment. Paintings of her monogram of George Sand (G.S.) evoke ancestors and other family members her early career at Le Figaro with Jules are hung on the walls of the house: Sandeau, whose abbreviated surname the Count of Saxony, her great-grand- would become her pen name. Among father; the sculptor Auguste Clésinger, the souvenirs inherited from her grand- the writer’s son-in-law; the engraver mother, Marie-Aurore de Saxe, she was Luigi Calamatta, father of her daughter especially fond of the Count of Saxony’s -in-law; Frédéric Chopin and Eugène snuffbox and the ring described Delacroix, described by Sand as “quite in The Story of My Life, a gift from a dauber”; and Alexandre Manceau, the Grande Dauphine, the mother of the author’s last companion. Louis XVI, to her cousin Marie-Aurore: “...I held a beautiful ring in my hands [...], which my grandmother had taken from her finger and asked me to put it on my mother’s finger.” Rings, earrings and bracelets reflect the family saga that led her to write: “The blood of kings was mixed in my veins with Neck ribbon made by George Sand the blood of the poor and humble.” for her granddaughter Aurore © Rémi Briant / musée de la Vie romantique / Roger-Viollet 4 — 5 MUSÉE DE LA VIE ROMANTIQUE — GROUND FLOOR Those close to the writer In the Salon of 1848, the sculptor Auguste Clésinger exhibited the bust of George Sand, whose daughter, Solange, he had married. Their union was brief and stormy. His plaster casts of the writer’s arm and the famous hand of Chopin recall the eight years of their passionate relationship. George Sand, Auguste Clésinger, 1847 © musée de la Vie romantique / Roger-Viollet The medallions of Sand, Liszt, Musset and Delacroix by David d’Angers, along with his portraits of Maurice Sand and the singer Pauline Viardot, the portrait of the engraver Luigi Calamatta by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres and the works of The last scene Eugène Delacroix (Sand owned seven of “Leila” by George Sand, of his paintings and numerous water- Eugène Delacroix, colors and drawings) depict this inti- circa 1847 © musée de la mate circle. Vie romantique / Roger-Viollet Plaster cast of Chopin’s left hand, Auguste Clésinger, circa 1849 © Fr. Cochennec et E. Emo / musée de la Vie romantique / Roger-Viollet Alfred de Musset, David d’Angers, 1831 © Eric Emo / musée Carnavalet / Roger-Viollet MUSÉE DE LA VIE ROMANTIQUE — GROUND FLOOR GEORGE SAND’S DRAWING ROOM 3 The patina of memory George Sand, Auguste Charpentier, “In remembrance of beautiful circa 1837 things”: the memorabilia of George © musée de la Vie romantique / Sand are displayed in a setting Roger-Viollet designed by Jacques Garcia that invites visitors to enter the writer’s chest of drawers in marquetry topped world. Above the chimney, the by a bust of the Count of Saxony, famous portrait of Sand by Auguste the illegitimate son of August II Charpentier dated 1838 is accom- of Saxony, victor of Fontenoy and panied by those of her paternal future king of Poland and George grandparents: Marie-Aurore de Sand’s grandfather, by the sculptor Saxe as Diana the Huntress and her Laurent Delvaux. On the right wall, husband, the tax officer Louis-Claude a drawing illustrating The Devil’s Dupin de Francueil. The furniture Pool gives an idea of the talent of presented here belonged to her and Maurice Sand, George Sand’s son, includes a Louis XV desk with two who was the only student of Eugène cabriolet armchairs, a “tombeau” Delacroix and the illustrator of some of his mother’s novels. On a pedestal table, a statuette representing the Portrait of dancer Amany (1838) by Jean-Auguste Maréchal de Saxe Maurice Quentin Barre evokes the success of small de la Tour, circa 1748 bronzes made in tribute to the © musée de la stars of the theater and dance. Vie romantique / Roger-Viollet 6 — 7 MUSÉE DE LA VIE ROMANTIQUE — GROUND FLOOR THE SMALL BLUE DRAWING ROOM From pen to brush above below Le Concert, Imaginary Landscape, Toward the end of her life in her Eugène Devéria, 1832 George Sand, circa 1850-70 beloved Berry region, George Sand © musée de la © musée de la Vie romantique / Vie romantique / enthusiastically took up watercolor Roger-Viollet Roger-Viollet and skillfully practiced the art of cre- ating “dendrites,” a technique that The artist first determines whether she also called “watercolor by press- the eye can see a sky, a small valley ing”. Paint is applied to the paper or a river. Next, she emphasizes cer- with a brush and while still wet is tain lines with a needle and a pen; blotted with another sheet to obtain finally, she finishes this imaginary a random streak of color.

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