Cognacq-Jay Museum

Cognacq-Jay Museum

The Cognacq-Jay Museum is located in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris and is open to visitors free of charge every day except Mondays. The museum moved to its current location in 1990, housed in a four-story building decorated in the styles of the Louis XV and Louis XVI periods, with exhibits spread across twenty rooms.

The museum’s collection consists of the private holdings of Théodore-Ernest Cognacq and his wife Marie-Louise Jay, amassed between 1900 and 1925. Cognacq and his son were the founders of La Samaritaine, a major Parisian department store. After Cognacq’s death, he donated his collection to the City of Paris, and in 1929, the museum named after the couple — the Cognacq-Jay Museum — opened to the public.

The museum boasts a remarkable collection of art and decorative objects, totaling 1,200 pieces, with an especially rich selection of 18th-century French works. These include European and Chinese porcelain, jewelry, snuffboxes, as well as paintings by François Boucher, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Thomas Lawrence, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and Jean-Antoine Watteau. Sculptures by Jean-Antoine Houdon and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, along with exquisite furniture, are also part of the collection.

Musée Cognacq-Jay

Must-visit reason: One of the most worthwhile private collection museums in Paris

Continent where the attraction is located: Europe【Europe】

Country/region where the attraction is located: France[France]

Province/state where the attraction is located: Île-de-France Region [Ile-de-France Region]

City where the attraction is located: Paris [Paris]