Another three museum day, although mostly by accident – they’re all small, and I had three hours between class and attending a very French student elections debate, in which people yelled at each other about social justice and how hard it is to find a cheap apartment in Paris.
First up: the Musée Cognacq-Jay. Mr. Cognacq was the 19th century founder of a big department store in Paris, and wanted to have a museum named after himself and his wife (the former Mademoiselle Jay). But not being a connoisseur of art, he gave a heap of cash to various art dealers (swear to God, this is how the museum introduces itself in its brochure) and thus, unsurprisingly, amassed a collection of really bad 18th century art with a large interweaving of bad fakes (I literally laughed out loud when I read the label attributing one painting to Tiepolo). It is free, and the carved paneling of the house (built by an unrelated family) is charming, so you may want to run through – if only to see the erotic genre scene paintings, which include what seem to be white slave and maid-on-mistress action.
