Eugène Delacroix Museum

The Musée national Eugène Delacroix occupies the last apartment and garden studio of France's foremost Romantic painter, who moved here in 1857 to be nearer to the church of Saint-Sulpice, where he was working on monumental mural decorations. The rooms are intimate in scale and give a vivid sense of the working conditions in which some of his finest late paintings were produced.

The museum is particularly notable for its combination of personal effects, preparatory studies, and finished works displayed in the spaces where they were created. The small garden studio — a separate structure opening onto a secluded courtyard — has a particular stillness that speaks directly to Delacroix's practice and temperament. The influence of his Romantic sensibility is evident in every corner of the apartment.

The Delacroix Museum is a perfect antidote to the scale of the Louvre, which holds the bulk of his work. It is best visited on a quiet morning. Allow at least an hour, and more if you linger over the drawings and prints.