Musée Bourdelle

The French sculptor and painter Antoine Bourdelle used this Montparnasse building as his studio from 1885 until his death in 1929, establishing himself at the heart of Paris' Bohemian district. The high glass roof, northern light and mezzanine are all typical of the nineteenth-century studio and - unusually - survive much as they appeared at the turn of the century. Works including Bourdelle's Centaure mourant (1911-1914) dominate the room, alongside works in wood, marble and bronze.

In the final years of his life, alongside teaching at the Grande Chaumière, Bourdelle devoted much of his energies to planning the building's transition to a museum. It was formally inaugurated in 1949, and subsequently expanded, most recently by Christian de Portzamparc (b.1944), whose modern extension (1989-1992) sought to respond to the old studio, while providing additional space for Bourdelle's larger sculptures, including Monument à Adam Mickiewic (1908-1929), his final work.