Berthe Morisot
Morisot and Eugene Manet had this house built on what was then the rue de Villejust in the early 1880s. She lived and worked here and hosted gatherings attended by Renoir, Degas, Monet and Mallarme.
40 rue Paul-Valéry
Still standing
Outside only
Someone else
The house Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet had built for themselves in the early 1880s on what was then the rue de Villejust — her home, her studio, and the setting of a salon that drew Renoir, Degas and Mallarmé.
- 40 rue Paul-Valéry, 75116 Paris
- Built for Morisot and Eugène Manet in the early 1880s
The place, briefly
Berthe Morisot married Eugène Manet, Édouard Manet's younger brother, in 1874. In the early 1880s the couple had a house built here on what was then the rue de Villejust, and it became the centre of her working and social life.
She both lived and painted here, and she used it to gather people. The evenings at this house drew Renoir, Degas, Monet and the poet Stéphane Mallarmé, who became a close friend and later a guardian to the Morisot's daughter Julie. It was one of the genuine artistic salons of the period, run by a woman who was herself one of the painters under discussion rather than a hostess to them.
Eugène Manet died in 1892. Morisot left the house afterwards and moved to a smaller apartment on the rue Weber, where she spent her last years.
The street is now the rue Paul-Valéry, which is why period sources and modern maps disagree. The house is private.
Key facts
- rue de Villejust
- For Morisot and Eugène Manet in the early 1880s
- Home, studio and salon
- Renoir, Degas, Monet and Stéphane Mallarmé
- After Eugène Manet's death in 1892
- Private — exterior only
Timeline
Morisot marries Eugène Manet.
The couple have the house on the rue de Villejust built.
Eugène Manet dies; Morisot moves to the rue Weber.
On the map
Questions before you go
Why do sources give Morisot's house a different street name?
The street was the rue de Villejust in her lifetime and was afterwards renamed the rue Paul-Valéry. Both names refer to the same address.
Who came to Morisot's salon?
Renoir, Degas and Monet among the painters, and the poet Stéphane Mallarmé, who became a close friend and later a guardian to her daughter Julie.
People who knew this place
Within walking distance
2 rue Georges-Ville
The home of Mathilde de Morny — Missy — where Colette lived through much of their relationship after leaving Willy.
Visit the place
44 rue de Villejust
The ground-floor apartment Colette rented on her own after leaving Willy, remembered as a place of new independence. The building no longer exists.
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Marcel Proust's last address, and the flat he hated. He moved here in 1919 when 102 boulevard Haussmann was sold out from under him, called it an ignoble hovel, finished correcting his novel here, and died in the building on 18 November 1922.
Visit the place10 rue Weber
The apartment Berthe Morisot moved to after her husband's death in 1892, and where she worked hard through her final years — more than a hundred works came out of this address before she died in 1895.
Visit the placeThe Friday Letter
Paris, one address at a time.
The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.