Musée Bourdelle, Paris

The Musée Bourdelle is the former home and studios of the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, at 18 rue Antoine Bourdelle in Paris's 15th arrondissement, about 400 metres from the Gare Montparnasse. Its permanent collection is free. It suits sculpture lovers and anyone near Montparnasse with an hour to fill, and the garden of bronzes is a quiet stop on a busy day.

Bourdelle, born in 1861, worked for years as an assistant to Auguste Rodin before developing his own monumental style. He used studios on this site from 1885 until his death in 1929, and he hoped they would become a museum. In the early 1930s the collector Gabriel Cognacq funded the purchase so the works could stay together, and the museum opened in 1949. Henri Gautruche extended it in 1961, and in 1992 the architect Christian de Portzamparc added a wing for large plasters. After a two-year renovation it reopened in March 2023 as one of the Paris Musées.

The old studios keep Bourdelle's workbenches and tools, which shows how he worked. The collection of marble, plaster and bronze sculpture, paintings, pastels and fresco sketches includes 21 studies of Beethoven, a subject Bourdelle returned to throughout his life.

The great hall of plasters, built in 1961, holds monumental works such as La France and the Monument to General Alvear. Hercules the Archer, commissioned by Gabriel Thomas, is on show, and other bronzes stand in the garden and courtyards. Bourdelle's own collection includes works by Rodin and Delacroix.

The permanent collections are free for everyone; temporary exhibitions are charged. The museum opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00 and is closed on Monday and some public holidays. Last entry is at 17:15, and the museum is also closed on 25 December and 1 January. Weekday mornings are the quietest. An hour to 90 minutes is enough. The museum is listed as accessible to visitors with reduced mobility. Le Rhodia café-restaurant stays open until 17:30, and there is a bookshop. Until 24 January 2027 the paid exhibition The Fabric of the Artist is on show.

Montparnasse – Bienvenüe metro (lines 4, 6, 12 and 13) is a short walk away, and Falguière on line 12 is about 300 metres. The Tour Montparnasse and the Musée de La Poste are each about 500 metres away. The Musée Zadkine, another sculptor's studio-museum near the Luxembourg Gardens, is about 1.5 kilometres east.