Five Hidden Paris Museums Dedicated to Artist Obsessions

A guide highlights five lesser-known Paris museums that were once the homes and studios of obsessive artists. The Musée Gustave Moreau in the 9th arrondissement was the Symbolist painter's own home, transformed into a monument to his jewel-toned fantasies, with glass-roofed studios and a spiral staircase. It opened shortly after his death in 1898. The Musée Bourdelle in Montparnasse was the studio of Antoine Bourdelle, Rodin's carver, who developed a monumental, archaic style; its Great Hall contains ghostly plaster casts. The Musée Zadkine near the Luxembourg Gardens was Ossip Zadkine's home and studio from 1928, where the Russian-born Cubist created angular wooden sculptures and his memorial to Rotterdam, The Destroyed City. The Musée National Eugène-Delacroix in Saint-Germain-des-Prés was Delacroix's final residence, where he worked on the frescoes for Saint-Sulpice until his death in 1863; it was saved by artists. The Musée National Jean-Jacques Henner in Plaine Monceau displays Henner's repeated portraits of pale, red-haired women, including the lost Saint Fabiola (1885). The museum is housed in a mansion owned by painter Guillaume Dubufe, where Henner never lived.