Enfilade

Now on view at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs:

A Day in the Eighteenth Century: Chronicle of a Parisian Townhouse

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 18 February — 5 July 2026

Curated by Ariane James-Sarazin and Sophie Motsch

Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre, La Mauvaise Nouvelle (The Bad News), oil on canvas, 23.5 × 18.5 cm (Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs).

A Day in the Eighteenth Century: Chronicle of a Parisian Townhouse invites visitors to step inside the intimate world of an eighteenth-century aristocratic residence and its inhabitants—masters, servants, and household animals. Featuring more than 550 original objects, drawn from the museum’s collections and for most of them, rarely on view, the exhibition gathers all fields of expression of the decorative arts—wood panelling and wallpapers, furniture, ceramics, silverware, clothing and fashion accessories, toys, and jewellery—to recreate the life of a Parisian hôtel particulier in the 1780s. In a cinematic, sound-filled and scented atmosphere, the visitors wander from room to room as if they were close acquaintances, friends, or privileged guests of the family.

The exhibition is curated by Ariane James-Sarazin, Chief Heritage Curator responsible for the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century collections and the Nissim de Camondo collection, together with Sophie Motsch, Assistant Curator.

Ariane James-Sarazin and Sophie Motsch, eds., Une journée au XVIIIe siècle, chronique d’un hôtel particulier (Paris: Éditions Les Arts Décoratifs, 2026), 528 pages, ISBN: 978-2383140351, €39.