Musée Cernuschi

We finally visited the other mansion-turned-museum on Parc Monceau, the Musée d’Art Asiatique de Paris. This museum features a beautiful collection of Chinese art (Neolithic pottery, antediluvian bronzes, Buddha statues, funerary statuettes, and a collection of 20th-century paintings).

The museum was founded in 1898 by financier Henri Cernuschi (1821–1896) and is located in the small mansion next to Parc Monceau that used to be his home. Cernuschi bequeathed to the City of Paris his townhouse and the large assortment of Far Eastern art that he had collected during his travels.

There are about 900 objects on permanent exhibit, of which the most prominent is the huge Buddha of Meguro, a Japanese bronze from the 18th century. Other permanent exhibits include a fine collection of archaic bronze pieces, Han Dynasty objects, Funerary statues from the Northern Wei and Sui Dynasties, Tang Dynasty statues, Ceramics from the Tang and Song dynasties, and funerary masks in gilded bronze dating from the Liao Dynasty.

When we went they had the "Lacquer Dreams, the Japan of Shibata Zeshin," special exhibition. About 70 pieces of lacquerware, screens, paintings, decorative and usual objects were being presented for the first time in Paris, illustrating the masterful art of Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891).