The Musée Picasso is situated in the heart of historic
Paris, and has a collection of several thousand works of Pablo Picasso. It is
an art gallery located in the Hôtel Salé in rue de Thorigny, in the Marais
district of Paris. The hôtel particulier that houses the collection was built
between 1656 and 1659 for Pierre Aubert, seigneur de Fontenay, a tax farmer who
became rich collecting the gabelle or salt tax (the name of the building means
"salted"). The architect was Jean Boullier from Bourges, also known
as Boullier de Bourges; sculpture was carried out by the brothers Gaspard and
Balthazard Marsy and by Martin Desjardins. It is considered to be one of the
finest historic houses in the Marais.
The museum has also made a real effort to present
accompanying information. For example, the work of cartoonists of the time who
mocked or caricatured his work is displayed with Picasso's work from the 1950s.
Picasso was born in 1881 and he began to study art in 1895.
During his life he created diverse works: painting, sculpture, drawing,
ceramics, engraving, and even poetry. After his death in 1973, many of
Picasso's works went to the French state, which decided to form a museum with
the collection.
Adresse:
Hôtel Salé; 5, rue de Thorigny, 75003
Opening hours:
Metro:
Saint-Paul, Saint-Sébastien Froissart, Chemin Vert