The Musée Picasso is situated in the heart of historic Paris, and has a collection of several thousand works of Pablo Picasso. Picasso was born in 1881 and he began studying art in 1895. During his life he created diverse works including paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, engraving, and even poetry. After his death in 1973, many of Picasso's works went to the French state, which decided to form a museum with the collection.

To house the collection, a seventeenth-century hotel was chosen, situated in the Marais. Before housing the musée Picasso, the hotel was already well-known as it was built as a residency for the general, Audbert de Fontenay, in 1656. It was leased to the ambassador of Venice, and it became the Central School of Art and Manufacture (and then the School of "Métiers d'Art"), and finally it was leased to the state in 1975. The restoration of the museum was completed in 1985.

Today, there are 203 paintings, 191 sculptures, 85 ceramics, and over 3000 drawings, engravings, and manuscripts in the museum. Besides the personal collection of Picasso, the museum also houses some works of Cézanne and Matisse.

view the official website for the Picasso Museum (french only).
view more information on the Picasso Museum (english).