Musee Picasso Paris is the world’s largest Picasso museum, with, for example, “Picasso’s Picassos”, the works Picasso kept for himself.
The Picasso museum, which opened its doors to visitors in 1985, is located at Rue de Thorigny (in Marais arrondissement of Paris).
Hôtel Salé, the museum’s building, is one of the city’s most beautiful townhouse landmarks…
…and famous, for example, for housing at one time the embassy for the Venetian Republic (1668-1688).
As the world’s largest Picasso museum, the museum has a very wide range of works from the artists, including…
- 251 Picasso paintings,
- 160 sculptures,
- 107 ceramic works, and
- more than 3,000 graphics.
You’ll also get to view personal letters, photographs, and manuscripts that belonged to Picasso. In fact, the museum has many objects on display to give more context to the artworks.
PHOTO: Picasso museum’s Hôtel Salé, a design by Jean Boullier, was completed in 1659. The original owner of the building was Pierre Aubert, who amassed wealth by having the right to collect a tax called “gabelle”…or “salt tax”, giving the building its name, “salted townhouse“.
The most famous part of Musee Picasso Paris collection is Picasso’spersonal collection, the “Picasso’s Picassos“, works he did not want to sell to others.
In fact, Picasso often said that he was “the greatest Picasso collector in the world”.
Another distinguishing, rare feature in the collection are the artworks by Picasso, made after his 70th birthday (Picasso lived until 91 years old).
Picasso’s own art collection also includes works from artists he admired personally, such as…
- Cézanne,
- Renoir,
- Braque,
- Modigliani, and
- Matisse…
…and their paintings, as owned by Picasso, are now on display at the museum.
Out of the thousands of individual Picasso artworks in the museum’s collection, several are more famous than others. The highlights include…
- “Self Portrait” (1901, from Picasso’s “blue period”),
- “Three Figures Under a Tree” (1908),
- “Nude Woman in a Red Armchair” (1930), and
- “Crucifixion” (1930).
There is also the “Composition with Butterfly” (1932), a Picasso, which, for a long time, was considered lost.
A lot of the collection came to the museum from Picasso’s Spanish relatives upon the artist’s death in 1973…as a payment for the taxes owed to the French state based on Picasso’s real estate in the country.
Musée Picasso has been divided into several sections.
On the ground and first floors, you can find the main collection, while the second floor also has space for temporary Picasso exhibitions.
Musee Picasso Paris
Address: Hôtel Salé, 5, rue de Thorigny, 75003 Paris
Official website: Musee-Picasso.fr
- a Picasso library,
- Picasso archives, and
- documents related to the artist, mostly for the research of dedicated Picasso scholars.
To plan your visit to the Paris Picasso museum, one of the best sources of information is the official website, at www.musee-picasso.fr.