musée Bourdelle

The Musée Bourdelle, located in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, is an art museum housed in the former studio of renowned French sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. The museum is open daily except Mondays, with free admission to the permanent collections. The nearest metro stations are Falguière and Montparnasse-Bienvenüe. The museum, inaugurated in 1949, preserves Bourdelle's studio, providing a glimpse into Parisian ateliers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was Bourdelle's active studio from 1885–1929, and in 1922, he began plans to turn it into a museum. The studio was purchased in the early 1930s to prevent the dispersal of Bourdelle's remaining works. Today, the museum houses over 500 works, including marble, plaster, and bronze statues, paintings, pastels, and fresco sketches. It also contains Bourdelle's personal collection of works by artists like Eugène Carrière, Eugène Delacroix, and Auguste Rodin, among others. The museum showcases the original plaster casts of some of Bourdelle's finest works, including 21 studies of Ludwig van Beethoven, and his copies of Greek and medieval works. The museum underwent extensive renovations for two years, reopening in March 2023. It is part of the French public institution Paris Musées, and offers a unique, educational, and chronological journey through Bourdelle's artistic evolution.