Musée Cognacq-Jay

The Musée Cognacq-Jay occupies the Hôtel Donon, a late sixteenth-century mansion in the Marais district of Paris. The collection was assembled by Ernest Cognacq, founder of La Samaritaine department store, and his wife Marie-Louise Jay, and bequeathed to the City of Paris in 1928. It brings together an exceptional gathering of eighteenth-century European art, including paintings by Rembrandt, Canaletto, and Fragonard, alongside porcelain, furniture, and decorative objects that evoke the refined tastes of the French Enlightenment.

The museum's intimate scale sets it apart from the grand institutions of the city, allowing visitors to move through rooms that feel closer to a private residence than a public gallery. Alongside the permanent collection, the museum hosts a temporary exhibition currently on offer, continuing its tradition of presenting focused, scholarly displays that deepen understanding of the eighteenth century and its artistic legacy.