Painting
The Blue Hours
Until 14 Sept
Forty canvases tracing how French painters chased the fading light of dusk, from candle-lit interiors to the first electric Paris nights.
A living museum in the Marais
Five centuries of art, open every day on Rue de Rivoli
Luminart gathers painting, sculpture and the decorative arts under one Parisian roof — a permanent collection to return to and exhibitions that change with the season.
Book your visit
Photographed in June across four galleries, no retouching.
See what's on view
The house
A nineteenth-century mansion keeping five centuries of art
Luminart lives inside a hôtel particulier on Rue de Rivoli, a few steps from the Seine. The building was never meant to be quiet — its enfilade of rooms was built to be walked, and we keep it that way.
From a 16th-century altarpiece to a chair upholstered in 1925, the collection moves through painting, sculpture and the decorative arts without a change of ticket. Daylight falls the way the architect intended, and the rooms read as a single sentence rather than a list.
- Original parquet and plaster, carefully restored
- Four floors linked by the original stone staircase
- A rooftop café added in the former service attic
On view right now
Three exhibitions open this season
Each runs alongside the permanent collection. One ticket, or the day-pass, carries you through all of them.
Decorative arts
Hands of the Workshop
Until 2 Nov
Glass, enamel and cabinetry from the city's great ateliers, shown beside the tools and drawings that made them possible.
Sculpture
Figures in Marble
Until 18 Jan
A room of European busts and reliefs lit from a single skylight, arranged so the stone seems to turn as you walk around it.
The museum in figures
A scale you can plan a day around
9,400
Works in the collection
6,200 m²
Of public galleries
11/year
Temporary exhibitions
340K
Annual visitors
Your first visit
An ideal route through the house
Follow it in order and you will see the collection the way the rooms were planned to be read — or wander off it at any door.
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01
Entrance & cloakroom
Collect your ticket under the glass canopy, leave coats and bags at the cloakroom just inside, and pick up the single-sheet map from the desk.
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02
The grand staircase
Climb the original stone stair to the first floor. The light from the roof lantern is strongest in the morning, so painting comes first.
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03
Painting galleries
Move through the enfilade of first-floor rooms, from the 16th century to the edge of the modern. Benches sit at the centre of each room.
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04
Sculpture & the cabinet
Descend to the garden gallery for the marbles, then the decorative-arts cabinet beside it — glass, enamel and furniture in low, raking light.
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05
The rooftop café
End on the terrace in the former service attic, with coffee, a short lunch menu and a view across the rooftops of the Marais.
The permanent collection
Three threads that belong in the same house
The collection is not encyclopaedic by accident — it was gathered to show how a painter, a sculptor and a cabinetmaker of the same decade answered the same questions.
- French painting — from Renaissance portraiture to the first Paris cityscapes, hung chronologically through the first floor.
- European sculpture — busts, reliefs and small bronzes shown in the round, lit to be walked around rather than past.
- The decorative-arts cabinet — glass, enamel, ceramics and furniture, the applied answer to the painted and carved ones.
Tickets & passes
Choose how you'd like to visit
Every ticket includes the permanent collection. Admission is free on the first Sunday of each month.
Standard
Collection admission
€12 / person
- The full permanent collection
- Printed room map
- Rooftop café access
Day-pass
Collection + exhibitions
€19 / person
- Everything in admission
- All three temporary exhibitions
- Re-entry for the whole day
Annual
Membership
€68 / year
- Unlimited visits for a year
- Guest pass each month
- Priority opening invitations
This season's calendar
Dated events to plan a return around
Openings, talks and evenings run through the autumn. Members are invited first; day-pass holders are welcome to the late nights.
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12Sept
Opening
The Blue Hours — curator's preview
An early walk through the painting exhibition with its curator, before doors open to the public the following morning.
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27Sept
Talk
Light, candle and lamp in French painting
A forty-minute lecture in Gallery 4 on how painters recorded the shift from flame to electric light across two centuries.
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10Oct
Late night
Nocturne — galleries open until 22:00
The museum stays open into the evening with quiet lighting, a short programme of readings and the terrace bar open late.
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02Nov
Concert
Strings in the sculpture gallery
A chamber quartet plays among the marbles of the garden gallery, where the stone gives the sound its particular room.
In the words of
“Luminart does the rarest thing in Paris — it lets five centuries share a single staircase, and trusts you to find your own way up.”
Public programmes
Ways to go deeper into the collection
Three programmes run year-round, for the curious, for families and for schools. All can be booked at the desk or online.
60 minutes
Guided tours
A daily hour with a museum guide across the highlights of the collection. Tours leave from the staircase at 11:00 and 15:00; no booking needed for members.
Ages 6–11
Family workshops
Weekend sessions where children draw, model and look closely with an educator, then find the real objects in the galleries. Booked by the half-day.
Free for schools
School visits
Structured visits tied to the curriculum, led by our education team. Teachers reserve a slot and receive a preparation sheet in advance.
With the support of
Partners and patrons of the programme
- Ville de Paris
- Fondation Seine
- Marais Patrimoine
- Atelier Rivoli
- Cercle des Mécènes
Before you come
Practical questions, answered
Luminart is open every day from 10:00 to 18:00, with last entry at 17:15. On Nocturne evenings the galleries stay open until 22:00. The museum closes on 25 December and 1 January.
Every public floor is reachable by lift, and wheelchairs are available free at the cloakroom. Assistance dogs are welcome throughout. Please tell the desk if you'd like a step-free route planned.
The permanent collection is free for everyone on the first Sunday of each month, and free year-round for visitors under 18 and for art students with valid identification.
Photography without flash or tripod is welcome in the permanent collection. Some loaned works in the temporary exhibitions carry a no-photography mark; the gallery labels tell you where.
Large bags, backpacks and umbrellas must be left at the free cloakroom by the entrance. Small bags may be carried, worn to the front, in the galleries.
Getting here
Find us on Rue de Rivoli
The museum sits in the heart of the Marais, a short walk from the Seine and from the Hôtel de Ville.
- Address18 Rue de Rivoli, 75004 Paris
- Phone01 42 68 53 17
- HoursEvery day, 10:00 – 18:00
- MétroHôtel de Ville (lines 1, 11) — 4 min walk
- Vélib'Station at Rue du Bourg-Tibourg