On rue de Grenelle, a former convent turned mansion houses the collection that Dina Vierny, Aristide Maillol's model and muse, built up over her lifetime. Sculptures and drawings by the Catalan master are shown alongside Matisse, Picasso, Degas and Gauguin, with one of the most popular exhibition programmes in Paris.
The museum at a glance
Dina Vierny was fifteen when she became Maillol's model. She then spent fifty years promoting his work, eventually opening this museum in 1995 in the former convent of the Récolletines, after more than fifteen years of renovation. The large sculptures she gave to the State now adorn the Tuileries Garden.
Don't miss
The inner patio and the grand staircase set the tone as soon as you enter. Dina Vierny's personal collection, which mixes modern and naïve art, deserves as much attention as the Maillols themselves. The temporary exhibitions, large-scale retrospectives, take up a good part of the tour.
Visiting tips
It is an eighteen-minute walk from the hotel, via rue de Vaugirard and Sèvres-Babylone. The major exhibitions get very busy at weekends, and evening late openings offer much better conditions. Café Prévert, in the basement, occupies the former cabaret of La Fontaine des Quatre-Saisons.
Close by
Bouchardon's Fontaine des Quatre-Saisons stands right next to the museum. Le Bon Marché and La Grande Épicerie are five minutes away, and the Musée Rodin and its garden a quarter of an hour to the west.
