Musée Marmottan Monet

History

The building started as a hunting lodge on the edge of what was then the Château de la Muette estate, later converted into a private mansion. Art historian and collector Jules Marmottan bought it in the 1880s to house his growing art collection, and his son Paul Marmottan inherited both the house and the collection in 1883, adding to it substantially, particularly First Empire furniture, paintings, and decorative arts. On his death in 1932, Paul Marmottan left the mansion and its contents to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, which opened it as a public museum in 1934.

The museum's collection changed dramatically in 1966, when Claude Monet's son Michel Monet bequeathed his father's remaining works to the museum on his death, a collection that had stayed within the family and largely out of public view. It included dozens of the Water Lilies paintings Monet made at Giverny in his final years, along with Impression, Sunrise, the 1872 painting that gave the entire Impressionist movement its name after a critic used the term dismissively in a review. A further donation in 1971 by Nelly Sergeant-Duhem added Berthe Morisot's personal collection, including her own paintings and works by Manet, Renoir, and Degas that had belonged to her.

Today the museum holds the world's largest collection of Monet's paintings, alongside Berthe Morisot's largest single collection, medieval illuminated manuscripts from the Wildenstein collection, and First Empire furniture and portraiture from the Marmottan family's original holdings.

Opening Hours & Wait Times

The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, closed every Monday, plus 1 January, 1 May, and 25 December.

Last admission is at 5:00 PM, or 8:00 PM on Thursday evenings. The ticket counter on-site doesn't open until 11:00 AM, an hour after the museum itself, since the first hour is reserved for visitors who already hold an online ticket.

Compared to the Louvre or the Musée d'Orsay, this museum rarely feels crowded. Expect waits of 15 to 45 minutes without a ticket, longer on weekends and public holidays. Online tickets include fast-lane access, letting you skip the general queue entirely.

Tickets & Prices

Free admission also applies to disabled visitors with a companion, teachers, art and art-history students, jobseekers, journalists, tour guides, and ICOM/ICOMOS cardholders, among other professional categories, all with valid proof collected at the ticket desk. Ticket prices can rise slightly during a major temporary exhibition, so check the current rate when booking if a specific show is the reason for your visit.

Tickets bought online come with a fixed 15-minute entry slot but unlimited time inside once you're in, and must be printed at home or shown on a smartphone, since they can't be collected at the museum. Tickets bought on-site are only valid the same day and are sold from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, or until 8:00 PM on Thursday evenings.

Getting There

The museum sits in the residential 16th arrondissement, next to the Ranelagh gardens. No metro line runs directly to the door, but the walk from either nearby station is straightforward.

Address: 2 Rue Louis-Boilly, 75016 Paris, France

Highlights of the Musée Marmottan Monet

Good to Know

The museum has facilities for visitors with reduced mobility, including ramps and elevators. Flash photography and touching the artwork aren't permitted, standard for a collection of this age and value. The surrounding Ranelagh garden is worth a slow walk before or after your visit, and the museum's café, Le Jardin Marmottan, is a quiet spot to sit down if you need a break partway through.

Exhibitions

The main exhibition, organized jointly with the Musée de Grenoble, traces landscape painting across more than a century, putting Monet in dialogue with 20th-century and contemporary artists including David Hockney. Alongside it, the 11th edition of the museum's "Unexpected Dialogues" series features a large wall drawing by American artist Peter Soriano, revisiting Monet's 1895 winter trip to Norway. Both are covered by standard admission.

Photo Gallery

Frequently Asked Questions