Overview

Built in 1575, the hotel Donon (private mansion) houses works of art, pieces of furniture, tapestries and sculptures collected by Ernest Cognacq and his wife Louise Jay (the famous founder of the la Samaritaine department store) at the turn of the 20th Century. They left everything to the city of Paris in 1929. The exhibition mostly focuses on 18th-century works, particularly Rococo style by French artists, such as Watteau, Greuze and Boucher. There are also works from English, Dutch and Flemish painters (Reynolds, Lawrence, Rembrandt, Rubens). Even though this residence dates back from the 16th Century, its façade and annex were only built in the 18th Century. Its décor reflects its past as a private mansion giving it a warm and authentic atmosphere.