Musée Cognacq-Jay, Art museum in Le Marais, France
The Cognacq-Jay Museum is an art museum in Le Marais displaying around 1200 works and decorative pieces from the 18th century arranged across twenty elegant rooms within Hotel Donon. The collection encompasses paintings, porcelain, jewelry, and finely crafted snuffboxes that together convey the breadth of European artistic production from that era.
The museum opened in 1929 following a donation of the private art collection from the founders of La Samaritaine department store to the city of Paris. The holdings reflect decades of collecting by a couple who methodically assembled works from across Europe.
The rooms showcase paintings by European masters alongside decorative Asian objects that reflect the refined taste of collectors from the 18th century. These works reveal how wealthy families of that era valued both Western and Eastern artistic traditions.
The museum is located in the 3rd arrondissement and offers free entry, opening Tuesday through Sunday. Plan for around two hours to walk through the rooms at a comfortable pace.
The building itself, Hotel Donon, is a 17th-century private mansion featuring beautiful staircases and original architectural details that display the artworks within a historical setting. This blend of structure and collection creates an experience visitors often find surprisingly personal and layered.
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