Andre Jacquemart Musée, Heavenly Art and Parisian Opulence

For those of you who have already seen the Louvre and the Musée d’ Orsay,  and are not totally maxed out on art or  perhaps returning for another stay in Paris, then by all means go to the  Jacquemart Andre Museum, a veritable hidden jewel!

Not only will you see an extraordinary collection, especially of Italian Renaissance art, but a truly exquisite Paris mansion, that is worth seeing on its own!

This stunning mastery of classical inspired architecture was built in 1875  to be the mansion of a wealthy bachelor Édouard André Jacquemart.

Making it even more interesting for those who love stories and personalities like I do, is that this magnificent  house also factored in the  fabulous destiny of a woman, that I recently wrote a post about and her fantastic rags to riches story.

Madame Nélie Jacquemart, who spent her childhood roaming the halls of the Abbaye Royale de Chaalis, as a  maid’s daughter, not only ended up being mistress of the house, but had the means of buying the abbey of her childhood! 

Nélie’s path changed overnight after her marriage to Édouard Andre Jacquemart, which secured for her a life of absolute splendour living in her mini palace in Paris.  Their marriage was a “marriage of convenience”, but nevertheless seemed built on mutual friendship and tastes.

Reasons for this are not clear, but when Nélie first met Édouard, it was to paint his portrait, as she already had a reputation of being a society portraitist.  He was apparently  ill with syphilis and with deteriorating health, his family is thought to have encouraged him to take on Nélie as a companion caretaker.

Édouard came from a very wealthy Protestant banking family in the south of France.  He lost his mother as the age of two and because his family were very involved politically under the Napoleon era, he was groomed for a military career.

After graduating from the French military school of Saint Cyr, he served on missions to Italy and Mexico before  resigning to take over his father political post in Nimes.  He started to collect art during that time and upon being disinterested in politics, he moved to Paris.

He invested much of his inheritance into building this very opulent mansion on Haussmann avenue, that had been recently annexed into the city of Paris, having once been a part of the village of Monceau, whereabouts the Parc Monceau is located.

After buying the reigning art review of the city, La Gazette des Beaux Arts, he submerged totally into art collecting.  After his marriage to Nélie, he pursued various “cures” or treatments for his venereal disease, while Nélie did most of the organizing of art buys.

They traveled to Italy often and were particularly drawn to Italian paintings, sculptures and furniture.  The Italian museum,  is just marvelous, with  over 95 masterpieces from the 14, 15 and 16th centuries, including several Botticelli’s and Bellini’s.

The gold trimmed ceiling is absolutely gorgeous in the Venetian Room.  Whereas Édouard Andre preferred the Venetian school, Nélie preferred  Florentine art displayed in the Florentine Room. There is also a room dedicated to Italian sculpture.

Just to give you an idea of their wealth, the Jacquemart couple had an annual art budget of 223,000 to 553,000 francs, whereas the whole country of France committed only 200,000 francs at that time!  Not surprising that their Italian collection is considered the best French acquired after the Louvre!

There are many beautiful renditions of the Madonna with infant Jesus, which is a testimony of the fervent devotion Nelie had to Mother Mary and her Catholic faith.  Nélie even arranged the  Florentine Room, along with beautiful choir stalls, to serve as her private devotional room after Édouard’s death in 1894.

The French collection is quite seductive with the soft dreamy colours of Fragonard, along with notables from such others such as Boucher, Vigee Lebrun, Chardin et Nattier.  The Flemish collection has some Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Ruysdael.

You can see English masterpieces belonging to Reynold, Gainsborough, and Lawrence.  Additionally, like most other museums, they have special exhibitions throughout the year.

Even if you are not an art buff, the splendour of the house is worth seeing on its own merit! My photographs certainly can not do justice to the magnificence of the place, so two were borrowed from the web.

My favorite was the lavish light filled winter garden with marble floors and statues that gave way to the sumptuous divided grand staircase. Pastel coloured frescoes adorn the first floor ceiling that looked down onto the grandeur of their indoor garden.

You can visit the couple’s quarters where they maintained separate bedrooms.  Nélie put aside her paintbrushes shortly after her marriage, so there isn’t an artist’s atelier in the mansion.

Walking through this beautifully elegant mansion, there remains a very strong feminine energy and feel giving off an ethereal dreamy light spirit.  Apparently the couple had very similar tastes in general as there is a strong congruency amongst the rooms, rather than a gender inspired masculine tone, one often encounters in châteaux.

To the side of the entrance, which is in back of the mansion, there is a lovely tea salon overlooking the back courtyard.  The menu looked reasonable and the pastries were from a reputable pastry maker.

I like the fact that you could enjoy the salon du thé without having to pay an entrance fee to the museum, which makes it a delightful place to meet others providing elegant and pretty views, and that is away from street noise.

Nélie continued to travel long after her husband’s death, often going to exotic locals like India and Burma where she amassed even more art, perhaps the majority of which is displayed in her Abbaye Royale de Chaalis, which I wrote about last month.

However sumptuous her Parisian mansion was, in the end she seemed to prefer the quiet countryside where she grew up, just north of Paris.  Of course, by that time she had the great fortune to be able to buy the Abbaye de Chaalis Chateau.

There, she returned to have her own proper chapel, huge gardened estate, and abbey ruins that still emanates the ancient devotion of monks buried there.  She had made full circle of her fabulous fairy tale life back where her dreams had all started.

Both the Jacquemart Andre Musée and the Abbaye Royale de Chaalis were bequeathed upon her death in 1913, to the Institute de France, so that Nélie’s and Édouard’s magnificent legacy of art can be enjoyed by all.