Musée Gustave Moreau

On the first Sunday in March, we took advantage of the fact that state-run museums were free to go to one neither have us had visited before: the Musée Gustave Moreau.

Known for his fantastic - in the "fantasy" sense of the word - paintings, Moreau may have been the first artist to leave his home and personal collection to the state, and this museum opened to the public shortly after his death in 1898.

The museum's walls assault visitors with clutter and rapidly shifting subject matter, but overall you get a good sense of what the space must have felt like when it was still Moreau's atelier. There are laminated guides that label all of the paintings and describe a few of them, which was helpful.


Best part of the museum: the awesome spiral staircase linking the third- and fourth-floor studios:

Zoom in on these paintings, and you'll get a sense for the amazing intricacy of Moreau's work. Plus, you'll realize that he defined "tripping" 70 years before the advent of LSD.

The temporary exhibition during our visit revealed an interesting aspect of Moreau's creative process: his use of clay sculptures to model the figures in his paintings. Part of the exhibit involved x-ray images of several of the few remaining sculptures, placed behind the sculptures themselves, which were usually right next to the relevant paintings.

The art portion of the museum is concentrated on the uppermost two floors, where Moreau had his studios. Below the studios, Moreau created his own "museum" focusing on his family, and today you can visit Moreau's apartments. Surprise, surprise: the walls here are jam-packed with portraits, the tables with knick-knacks, the rooms with period furniture. It only takes about 5 minutes to move through the rooms, but those 5 minutes were pretty overwhelming.

The museum is open every day but Tuesday, 10 AM through 5:15 PM. It's a wild ride, and we recommend it.