Petit Palais visitor guide

Visit Petit Palais, Paris

The Petit Palais is the smaller of two palaces in the centre of Paris. It is in the 8th arrondissement, on Avenue Winston Churchill between the Champs-Elysées and the Seine.

Discover the Petit Palais

France This Way review: the Petit Palais is as visited as much for the building as for the museum it contains, and both are interesting.

inside the Petit Palais

Petit Palais: the building and history

The Petit Palais (and the Grand Palais across the road) was built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, and building started in 1897. It was built on the site of the Palace for Industry, that had been built in 1855 for an earlier Exposition Universelle (and was now demolished to make space for the Petit Palais).

The building is in the neo-classical style, with the main facade incorporating numerous stone columns as well as many decorative elements, carvings and sculptures. One noteworthy feature is the number of windows, that allow the inside to be very largely illuminated by natural light.

Symmetrical in design, the main entrance is in the centre of the facade beneath a large dome and through a series of tall stone arches, and at each end of the building there is a square tower in classical style.

Two years after the Exposition Universelle exhibition, the Petit Palais opened to the public as the Beaux-Arts Museum for Paris. It was completely restored in the early 21st century, retaining the same layout as the original structure.

Petit Palais: the Museum of Fine Arts

There are a good number of artworks in the permanent collection in the Petit Palais, and this is free to enter. Many of the exhibits, which include both paintings and statues as well as various artefacts, are in the large open spaces of the interior of the Petit Palais, so you will spend as much time admiring the building as the artworks.

There are a good number of renowned artists, such as Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Courbet and Cezanne. The majority are from the 16th - 19th centuries, but you will also see a few works of modern art, as well as some very ancient objects, such as a pottery head from the 3rd century BC.

I recommend that you look at the museum plan as you visit: as well as the principal rooms such as the grand hall and the gallery of statues, there are some interesting artefacts in a large room beneath the main hall, and a very impressive small collection of religious art rather hidden from the main galleries, and you will want to see both of these collections.

There are also regular temporary exhibitions in the Petit Palais as well, which are often interesting, but there is a charge to enter these.

Inside the Petit Palais, close to the main entrance, you can access an attractive courtyard and garden, semi-circular in shape, where there is also a cafe.

religious artwork in the Petit Palais museum