Musée National Gustave Moreau, Paris

The Musée National Gustave Moreau is the house and studio of the Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau, at 14 rue Catherine-de-La-Rochefoucauld in Paris's 9th arrondissement, between Pigalle and the Église de la Trinité. Moreau designed it himself as a museum of his own work. It suits visitors who like intimate house-museums, and an hour is enough.

Moreau lived here with his parents. In 1895 he decided to turn the house into a museum, and the architect Albert Lafon raised it by two storeys to create two large glazed studios above the family apartment. Moreau died in 1898 and left the house and its contents to the French state. The museum opened on 14 January 1903 and keeps much of the layout he planned.

The first-floor apartment is small and domestic, with family furniture, portraits and souvenirs, including the rooms where Moreau lived. Upstairs the scale changes. The two studios are hung floor to ceiling with large mythological and biblical canvases such as Jupiter and Semele (1895) and The Chimeras (1884), many of them unfinished, together with studies for The Apparition. The museum holds about 1,200 paintings and watercolours and around 4,800 drawings. Many drawings sit in cabinets with pivoting panels and pull-out drawers that visitors can open. A metal spiral staircase links the two studio floors and is the most photographed feature of the house.

The official site lists a full price of about €8 and a reduced price of about €6 in 2026. Under-18s enter free under national museum rules, and everyone enters free on the first Sunday of each month, when booking ahead is strongly recommended. The museum opens 10:00 to 18:00 every day except Tuesday, and is also closed on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. Last entry is about 30 minutes before closing.

The rooms are small and fill up on weekend afternoons, so weekday mornings are better. Plan an hour to 90 minutes, more if you want to work through the drawing cabinets. As a historic house with stairs, the museum has limited access for visitors with reduced mobility. There is a bookshop. The ticket covers the studios on the second and third floors; some other rooms open only when visitor numbers are low. It also gives free entry to the Musée Jean-Jacques Henner in the 17th arrondissement within three months. Group visits are not possible at present, and an English-language guided tour runs at 15:00 until 14 December 2026.

Trinité – d'Estienne d'Orves on metro line 12 is about 300 metres away; Saint-Georges (line 12) and Pigalle (lines 2 and 12) are also close. The Église de la Trinité is about 400 metres away and the Musée de la Vie Romantique about 600 metres, so the two house-museums pair well in one morning. The Palais Garnier opera house is about 1.2 kilometres south.