The Musée de la Vie romantique, Paris, in February 2026. JEAN-BAPTISTE GURLIAT/CITY OF PARIS
As the Musée de la Vie Romantique reopens in Paris on Saturday, February 14, after a year and a half of renovations, regular visitors will likely be surprised to discover the new brown hue of the shutters, which were previously a lovely almond green. This new note lends the two-story house, nestled at the back of a garden shaded by century-old trees, the appearance of an Italian villa (though some other trees have unfortunately been cut down).
“For the woodwork and window frames, we tried to restore the house’s original color, as it was built in 1830,” explained Gaëlle Rio, the museum’s director. In the absence of more precise documentation, the teams – Basalt Architecture and Atelier àkiko Designers – relied on a painting of the house held in the Netherlands’ Dordrechts Museum for guidance. In the same spirit, the facade now sports a more noticeable ecru shade, achieved with a limewash “made using traditional methods,” which also provides better insulation for the building.
These changes are subtle compared to those inside this beautiful bourgeois residence, which was acquired by the French state in 1981 and is managed by the City of Paris. Listed as a historical monument and home to the Musée de la Vie Romantique since 1987, the building had not been renovated since then. The reopening date – Valentine’s Day – was no coincidence. Yet the institution, with the new display of its collections (2,340 works, of which 300 are exhibited), effectively demonstrates that the “romantic” artistic movement encompassed much more than that. Beyond an exaltation of feelings, new themes – nature and landscape, literature, the fantastic – have been introduced to help visitors better understand the movement.
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