To step into Antoine Bourdelle’s apartment is to enter the private world of an artist and the truth of an era. When Bourdelle moved into this room in 1885, he chose to join Montparnasse’s bohemian scene. A year later, he had his parents join him from Montauban. His father moved into the “studio shop” next door, which opened onto the street.

In 1918, when Bourdelle decided to rent a more comfortable apartment on the nearby Avenue du Maine, he kept this “cradle” of his creative life.

The mirror faithfully reflects the image of everyday items...the bed where he rested, his desk and pastel box. On the walls are a Crucifixion, and paintings in the style of old masters – “my Titian, my Rembrandt” as Bourdelle used to say - and a unique mould of a David from the cathedral in Reims. There are also works by Bourdelle, sculpted or painted, to remind us of his son Pierre, his muse and second wife Cléopâtre, and their daughter Rhodia.