Eugène Delacroix Museum

A visit to this museum will give you a more intimate portrait of one of the most famous French Romantic artist, Eugène Delacroix who lived here until his death on August 13, 1863.

Delacroix moved to Rue de Furstenberg on December 28, 1857 and gave up his studio on Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. It was too far from the Saint-Sulpice Church, where Delacroix was working on a commission he had received in 1847 to decorate a chapel. At that time, the artist was seriously ill and he wanted to finish his work at all costs, but he was no longer able to manage the long trip across town every day.

After Delacroix’s death, various tenants occupied the building until discussions arose about destroying the studio. In 1929, several painters, including Maurice Denis and Paul Signac came up with the idea of creating the Société des Amis d’Eugène Delacroix, presided by Maurice Denis, to prevent this sacrilegious destruction.

The Société des Amis d’Eugène Delacroix initially rented the studio, then the apartment and the studio. This Société, recognized as working in the public interest in 1934, set as its goal to "guarantee the existence and maintenance" of the buildings and to promote Delacroix’s work. Starting in 1932, it organized a series of exhibitions, concerts, and conferences. When the building was put up for sale in 1952, the Société, concerned with completing its assigned task, sold its collection to the national museums. With the earnings, it was able to acquire the apartment, the studio, and the small garden. It donated all the property to the French government in 1954, with the agreement that a museum would be created.

In 1971, the Musée Eugène Delacroix became a national museum. The building’s façades and roofs on the courtyard and garden side, as well as the museum, the garden and the studio, were registered on the supplementary inventory of the Historical Monuments in 1991.

With the purchase in 1992 of part of an apartment adjoining the rooms occupied by the painter, the museum acquired a new public area and an information room. Finally, in Spring 1999, the garden was renovated. Although it is not a true reconstruction, due to a lack of precise documents, it now features many of the trees that Delacroix particularly loved, and foliage and plants that create an interplay of colors—a discreet reference to the talents of the colorist who was once master of this site.