Wassily Kandinsky
Frequented by
Kandinsky bought materials at Sennelier on the quai Voltaire during the wartime shortages, when pigment and canvas were scarce.
Sennelier, 3 quai Voltaire
Still standing
Walk straight in
Still the same
The artists' colourman opened by Gustave Sennelier on the quai Voltaire in 1887, opposite the Louvre — still trading, still grinding pigment, and still looking very much as it did.
- 3 quai Voltaire, 75007 Paris
- Founded 1887; still in business
The place, briefly
Gustave Sennelier opened his colour shop on the quai Voltaire in 1887, directly across the Seine from the Louvre, which is not a coincidence: the shop was positioned for painters going to and from the museum to copy.
It has been supplying them ever since. The house made its name grinding pigments to order and mixing bespoke colours for individual painters, and it is one of the few businesses in this Atlas where the trade, the family, the premises and the purpose have all stayed the same for well over a century.
Wassily Kandinsky used it during the Occupation, when materials were genuinely scarce and painters were extending what they had by whatever means they could. The shop's role in those years was less about luxury than about whether work could continue at all.
It is small, crowded and open. Walking in is the ordinary way to see it.
Key facts
- 1887, by Gustave Sennelier
- 3 quai Voltaire, facing the Louvre across the river
- Artists' colours, pigments and materials — still ground and mixed on the premises
- Bought materials here during the wartime shortages
- Open — walk in
Timeline
Gustave Sennelier opens the shop on the quai Voltaire.
Kandinsky buys scarce materials here during the Occupation.
On the map
Questions before you go
Can you visit Sennelier?
Yes — it is a working shop at 3 quai Voltaire and you can walk in. It is small and usually busy.
How old is the shop?
It was founded in 1887 and has traded on the same quay ever since, opposite the Louvre.
Writers who knew this place
People who knew this place
Marc Chagall
Chagall bought pigments and materials at Sennelier on the quai Voltaire, the colour merchant supplying Paris painters since 1887.
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