In 1879 a carpenter who owned a plot on the impasse du Maine had an architect build a studio flanked by two small pavilions, and let the space to artists. In January 1885 a young sculptor from Montauban, Antoine Bourdelle, rented a studio at no. 16. Painters, engravers and sculptors lived side by side in the yard; Jules Dalou worked next door. Bourdelle brought his parents up from the south and set his father, a cabinetmaker, up in a workshop on the ground floor, which later became his own painting studio.
He stayed until his death in 1929. These were the years in which he made his name: some fifteen years as a carver in Rodin’s workshop from 1893, then a break with the master’s style in the Heracles the Archer of 1909, all tension and geometry, and the long series of heads of Beethoven he pursued throughout his life. Monumental commissions followed, among them the equestrian monument to General Alvear for Buenos Aires.
After his death the land came up for sale. With money advanced by the collector Gabriel Cognacq, his widow Cléopâtre and his daughter Rhodia bought it, and offered the studios and the works to the State, which declined, then to the City of Paris, which accepted. The impasse had been renamed rue Antoine-Bourdelle in 1930. The museum opened on 4 July 1949, in the rooms where he had lived and worked.
It has grown in stages. In 1961, for the centenary of his birth, the City’s architect Henri Gautruche built the great plaster hall on the site of Dalou’s old studio, a tall space where the plasters of the Alvear monument stand. In 1992 Christian de Portzamparc added a second extension. After a renovation the museum reopened in March 2023. The original studios, where his tools and furniture remain, are still the heart of it.
What to look for
- The original studios, kept with Bourdelle’s tools and furniture.
- The great plaster hall of 1961, with the plasters of the Alvear monument.
- Heracles the Archer, the plaster of 1909 in the hall and a bronze in the garden.
- The heads of Beethoven, a subject he returned to again and again.
- The marble plaque of 1933 on the street front, recalling Bourdelle’s years here.
Timeline
- 1885Bourdelle rents a studio at 16 impasse du Maine
- 1909Heracles the Archer
- 1929Death of Bourdelle
- 1949The museum opens on 4 July
- 1961Henri Gautruche’s great plaster hall, for the centenary
- 1992Extension by Christian de Portzamparc
- 2023Reopening after renovation, in March
Plaques within 250 m
- 16 Rue Antoine Bourdelle · 40 m
ANTOINE BOURDELLE / SCULPTEUR / (1861 - 1929) / HABITA CETTE MAISON / DE 1884 A 1929 / 1933
- 10 Rue Antoine Bourdelle · 100 m
LE PEINTRE PAÏLÉS / 1895 . 1978 / A VÉCU DANS CET IMMEUBLE / DE 1923 À SA MORT
- 18 Boulevard Vaugirard · 140 m
A LA MEMOIRE / DE JEAN-PIERRE BERNARD / DESSINATEUR A LA DIRECTION / DES TELECOMMUNICATIONS / DE PARIS / MILITANT C. G. T. / ASSASSINE AU METRO CHARONNE / LE 8 FEVRIER 1962
- 14 Avenue Du Maine · 190 m
ICI / VÉCUT / de 1908 à 1910 / GIBRAN KHALIL GIBRAN / 1883 . 1931 / PEINTRE et POÈTE / LIBANO.AMÉRICAIN
- 3 Rue D Alen?on · 240 m
LE POETE ITALIEN / LIONELLO FIUMI / 1894-1973 / A VECU DANS CETTE MAISON
Commemorative plaques, Ville de Paris open data (ODbL); transcriptions as published, in French.
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