Today's web site is filled with text and images about how the mass of poor people in Paris lived in the late 19th century. But to fully understand the context

Edouard Andre by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

of their struggles, it is necessary to compa

Cornélie Barbe Hyacinthe Jacquemart, Self Portrait

re their lives with those of the small class of super rich Parisians in the same period.
Édouard François André (1833–1894) was a very rich banker and political figure. He was a strong supporter of the regime of Napoleon III and was deeply involved in the modernization. After the fall of the Second Empire he abandoned politics and turned his energies to the arts. He and his wife, the painter Cornélie Barbe Hyacinthe (Nélie) Jacquemart (1841-1912), amassed a gigantic art collection in their mansion on the right bank. Their home, now the Musée Jacquemart-André, can give us a glimpse of the life-style of the very rich in the late 19th century.

Musée Jacquemart-André Today