Musée Bourdelle, the sculptor’s Montparnasse studios since 1949

The Musée Bourdelle opened on 4 July 1949 on rue Antoine-Bourdelle, in the 15th arrondissement, where the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle lived and worked from 1885 until his death in 1929. The address was then 16 impasse du Maine.

In the early 1930s the land under the studios was put up for sale. Gabriel Cognacq lent the money to Cléopâtre Bourdelle-Sévastos, the sculptor’s second wife, and to his daughter Rhodia, and never asked to be repaid. The two women offered the site; the City of Paris accepted and the architect Henri Gautruche led the works.

In 1961, for the centenary of Bourdelle’s birth, Gautruche built the great hall of plasters on the site of Jules Dalou’s former studio. Christian de Portzamparc added a wing in 1992, paid for in part by the sale of a bronze Heracles the Archer. After a major renovation, the museum reopened in March 2023.

Between Montparnasse and Falguière, visitors walk through the original studios, with their floors, panelling and furniture, where the plaster Dying Centaur still stands. The hall of plasters shows the Monument to General Alvear and Heracles the Archer, while the garden and its gallery of Montauban brick hold the bronzes.