Description of the attraction
The Cognac-Jay Museum presents mainly pieces of French art of the 18th century, collected in the first quarter of the 20th century by Ernest Cognac and his wife Marie-Louise Same, founders of the famous Parisian department store La Samaritaine. The museum is located in the Donon mansion.
The royal official Mederic Donon (16th century) built a mansion in the then fashionable district of Mare and lived there all his life. In the centuries that followed, the mansion - an imposing structure typical of the Marais with a high roof and a large ceremonial courtyard - was used commercially and completely disfigured. In 1974, Paris purchased it and restored it specifically for the Cognac-Jay Museum.
Ernest Cognac is an example of successful private entrepreneurship. Left an orphan at the age of 12, he dropped out of school and began to earn a living from trade. Wandered around France, settled in Paris, where he started selling ties at Pont Neuf, and ended up opening a department store. It was he who introduced innovations into the retail industry such as fixed prices and the ability to try on clothes before buying.
Cognac offered customers mass-produced goods, but its own taste was more old-fashioned - together with his wife Marie-Louise, Ernest collected antique paintings, furniture, art objects (all mostly of the 18th century). The couple donated their unique collection to Paris: paintings by Boucher, Canaletto, Chardin, Fragonard, Watteau, a little Rembrandt, Corot, Cézanne, Degas, sculptures by Lemoine, Sali, Eben's furniture.
The collection is now housed on four floors of Donon's mansion. Examining the museum, it is easy to imagine how the aristocrats lived before the revolution - they basked in luxurious armchairs, checked the time on an expensive mantel clock, wrote letters on ivory-encrusted bureaus, slept in huge, truly royal beds (one of these is displayed on the fourth floor). Thanks to the large number of portraits, you can see what these people looked like, what they wore - the artists paid close attention to the details of clothing and jewelry. On the third floor, you can explore for a long time display cases with precious snuff boxes, tiny enamels, bottles, boxes and other cute things of a long gone era of sophisticated delights.
