The long-time Paris home of French painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet has arrived on the market for €12.5 million ($13.9 million).
In 1945, the artist rented a cozy studio nestled in a cul-de-sac in the 6th arrondissement, a one-time hub of artist studios between Montparnasse and Saint-Germain-des-Prés. He would remain there until his death in 1985. It was, Dubuffet felt, an ideal artist’s home, offering him aesthetic pleasure and privacy—the father of the style known as Art Brut received guests only on Thursdays.
The studio is located on Allée Maintenon, a cul-de-sac in the 6th arrondissement. Photo courtesy Varenne.
Finished in 1928, the structure had had been specially created as a studio-cum-home for Mela Muter, a Post-Impressionist Polish painter who spent time in Parisian cultural circles beginning in the 1910s. The three-story house was designed by Muter’s friend, Auguste Perret, one of the first architects in France to fully embrace reinforced concrete. He is celebrated for his work on the École Normale de Musique de Paris and a host of post-war reconstruction projects in the port city of Le Havre. Perret, along with his brothers also built nearby studios for the sculptor Dora Gordine and Marc Chagall.
The ground floor of Dubuffet’s former studio. Photo: courtesy Varenne.
The L-shaped house is built around a sprawling central patio and includes a series of large bay windows, features that offer that most precious of artistic commodities: light. Dubuffet was so enamored of the property that in 1946 he wrote Perret a letter praising his design.
“In terms of usage, I would like to tell you that living in this house (which is most of the time because I rarely go out) is a great pleasure, one that is given by the architectural proportions and arrangements,” Dubuffet wrote. “This impression doesn’t fade (quite the opposite, it increases) and I often think of the architect who designed it with feelings of admiration and gratitude that I want to share with you.”
A bedroom in the apartment. Photo courtesy Varenne.
The building has been thoroughly modernized since Dubuffet lived there. The ground floor’s exhibition room has been converted into a lounge that leads to a terrace, and the drawing studio has been turned into a kitchen that opens onto the dining room. Dubuffet’s first-floor painting studio is now a large master bedroom.
The dining area. Photo courtesy Varenne.
Spread across 2,900 square feet, the property includes a large, well-manicured terrace garden and parking. The property has been listed by the luxury Parisian real estate agency Varenne.
A bedroom in the studio. Photo courtesy Varenne.
“The renovation of the site, as well as the creation of the rooftop terrace, was carefully designed in the spirit of the Perret brothers and carried out in agreement with the urban planning department,” said Varenne’s Ludovic Brabant. “[It’s] a rare opportunity to acquire a piece of history, this property is a true gem for collectors and art lovers.”