e same atmosphere in which they were conceived." These collections were usually bequeathed to the Institut on condition of a guarantee that they would be displayed as the collectors had originally assembled them. In this way the efforts, taste, and logic of the collector were honored, and homogeneous collections remained intact for easier viewing and study. Though most Institut collections are shown in the collectors' homes, in some cases smaller collections have been jointly displayed in single locations--as with the private collections gathered in the Petit Palais. The Marmottan, however, combines the two types of Institut museum. It originally housed the collections of the Marmottan family, but, with the Donop de Monchy, Monet, and Duhem legacies--as well as Daniel Wildenstein's 1980 donation of his father's collection of 300 late medieval manuscripts--the Marmottan came to include several very different kinds of collections.
The Marmottan Museum is located in Paris' sixteenth arrondissement. The building was originally a hunting lodge, built by the Duc de Valmy. The lodge was purchased in 1882 by Jules Marmottan, a passionate collector of art and furnishings of the early Renaissance from Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy. The collections were inherited by his son Paul, a lawyer who subsequently retired and devoted himself to collecting and writing about the art of the First Empire. Because this was "a period most collectors tend[ed] to overlook," Marmottan's collection, which included "some very choice items of furniture, objets d'art and painting," was uniquely valuable to students of the Empire style. Marmottan "intended his collection to form a public museum," and bequeathed his property and collections to the Institut de France in 1932. The museum opened two years later. For the most part, the museum retains the appearance of a private house in those areas where the Marmottans' collections are housed. Tem...