Wingsch Real Estate Investments   

Museum of Romantic Life in Paris

Tuesday, 17 February 2026 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union
Category/Kategorie: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Paris / Île-de-France Reading Time:  4 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The Musée de la Vie romantique (Museum of Romantic Life) is one of three literary museums in Paris (along with the Maison de Balzac and the Maison de Victor Hugo). It is located at the foot of Montmartre hill in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The Musée de la Vie romantique is one of the 14 Paris Musées that have been incorporated since January 1, 2013.

The main pavilion, an 1830s hôtel particulier, was the Paris base of the Dutch-born painter Ary Scheffer, one of the prominent artists of the time, close to King Louis-Philippe and his family. For decades, Scheffer and his daughter hosted Friday-evening salons, among the most famous in La Nouvelle Athènes. George Sand used to come as a neighbour with Frédéric Chopin, meeting Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Alphonse de Lamartine, Franz Liszt, Gioacchino Rossini and singer Pauline Viardot. Later in the century, Charles Dickens, Ivan Turgueniev, and Charles Gounod attended regularly.

The property remained in private hands and passed by descent until 1982 when it became a museum, under the name of “Musée Renan-Scheffer”. After an extensive renovation conducted by Jacques Garcia under the direction of Anne-Marie de Brem, it reopened in 1987 as “Musée de la Vie romantique”. Daniel Marchesseau, conservateur général du Patrimoine, was appointed director in November 1998. For 13 years, he developed an ambitious program of exhibitions and acquisitions. Attendance has widely grown, from 18.000 visitors a year (1998) to 145.000 in 2010. He retired in winter 2013. His successor, Jérôme Farigoule, was appointed in September 2013.

The Museum displays on the first floor numerous mementos of the romantic literary figure George Sand, including family portraits, household possessions, pieces of jewelry and memorabilia including plaster casts by Clésinger of the writer’s sensuous right arm and Chopin’s delicate left hand, plus a number of her own unique and rare watercolours called “dendrites”. On the second floor, one can admire a number of Romantic canvases, sculptures and objets d’art.

• Paintings by Ary Scheffer include portraits of Pauline Viardot, Queen Marie-Amélie, Princesse de Joinville, Princesse Marie d’Orléans, as well as oils of The Giaour (after Lord Byron), Faust and Marguerite (after Goethe), Effie and Jeanie Deans after The Heart of Midlothian by Walter Scott.
• Works by his contemporaries include François Bouchot (Maria Malibran), François Debon, Charles Durupt, Louis Hersent, Redouté, Camille Roqueplan.
• Sculptures are by Barre, Bartholdi, Théophile Bra (Mme Mention, bronze), Auguste Clésinger (Self-portrait and Portrait of George Sand, marble), Dantan, David d’Angers, Jean-Jacques Feuchère (Satan), François-Désiré Froment-Meurice, Théodore Gechter (Harold, bronze), Antonin Moine (Sully, bronze), Marie d’Orléans (La Chasse au faucon, I & 2, plaster, ca. 1835), James Pradier (Sappho, bronze), Christian Daniel Rauch (Goethe, bronze, 1820)…

The Museum also displays several portraits and material related to the famous scholar and writer Ernest Renan who had married Ary Scheffer’s niece.

Read more on Musée de la Vie romantique and Wikipedia Museum of Romantic Life (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.