Marcel Proust Exhibition at Renovated Musée Carnavalet Draws 400,000 Visitors

The Musée Carnavalet in Paris presents 'Marcel Proust. Un roman parisien,' a major exhibition dedicated to the author of 'In Search of Lost Time.' The show, open until April 2022, has attracted over 400,000 visitors. It marks the 150th anniversary of Proust's birth (1871-1922) and explores the Parisian settings of his novel, including the salons and apartments where he lived during the late Second Empire. The exhibition features period photographs, letters, manuscripts, and advertising posters, alongside paintings by Caillebotte, Monet, Vuillard, and Pissarro, and photographs by Nadar and Atget. Furniture and antique objects evoke the era's taste. The poster image is a portrait of Proust by Jacques-Emile Blanche (1892) from the Musée d'Orsay. The Musée Carnavalet, the oldest museum in Paris, reopened after four years of renovation by Snøhetta (Oslo), Chatillon Architectes (Paris), and NC-Nathalie Crinière. The museum spans two buildings: Hôtel Carnavalet (completed 1655 by François Mansart) and Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau (1688 by Pierre Bullet). Its collection includes over 600,000 works, and before closure it attracted about 400,000 visitors annually.