Paris has a museum for just about everything, from fine art to fashion to natural history to sewers. But if you’re into the macabre and scientifically strange, the Musée Fragonard d’Alfort (the Fragonard Museum) is not to be missed. Just don’t get it mixed up with the Fragonard perfume museum — this one is all about animal disease, abnormalities, and skinned human corpses. Many of the exhibits date back to the 17th and 18th centuries, giving you a historic look at early scientific study. That being said, these displays are extremely graphic and some are downright shocking. You’ve been warned!
Location & Hours
Alfort National Veterinary School, 7 Av. du Général de Gaulle, 94700 Maisons-Alfort, France
Getting There: The Fragonard Museum is located in Maisons-Alfort, a suburb of Paris. It took me about 40 minutes on Metro Line 8 to get from Le Marais to the school — super doable, just make sure to factor in travel time. Once at the École Nationale Vétérinaire, there’s a security guard who will let you into the courtyard. From there, just follow the signs to the Fragonard building and go upstairs to the museum.
Hours: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, 2 – 6 p.m. Check the website for special late openings such as Museum Night in May!
Cost: €8. Admission includes an audio guide.
History
The École Nationale Vétérinaire de Maisons-Alfort is one of the world’s oldest veterinary schools, and its museum — founded in 1766 — is one of the oldest in France.
The museum is named for Honoré Fragonard. Again, we are NOT talking about Fragonard perfumes or the Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard (though the painter was his cousin). This Honoré Fragonard was the vet school’s first professor of anatomy. Fragnard used animal fat and wax (dyed for effect) in a still semi-secret process to create his écorchés or flayed figures.
While some of his creations were made for medical study, it’s clear that many were made as theatrical art. After six years, Fragonard was dismissed in 1771 as a madman, but he continued to privately create and sell hundreds more of his grisly anatomical works. It’s estimated that he prepared around 700 écorchés in his lifetime, but only a few survive today.
What to Expect
The museum opened to the public in 1991, and it’s small but packed. At the museum entrance, you’ll be greeted by a porpoise and a staff member who’ll set you up with tickets and an audio guide. The man we bought our tickets from gave us the friendly warning, “when you enter the Red Room, there is a man with no skin” — that’s gotta be the best intro you can get!
There are three main exhibit areas:
The first room is a collection of anatomical oddities and medical models including a two-headed calf, a two-headed bat, a many-legged lamb, and an extensive collection of plaster and wax models showing various ailments and deformities. If you’re even a little fascinated by the bizarre, you’ll be completely captivated.
The second room features a huge display of skeletons, most notably horses but also a giraffe, rhinoceros and others. The walls have cases of horse mandibles and eyeball models.
The third room is the Red Room, featuring a small collection of Fragonard’s surviving écorchés. On the left you see “The Horseman of the Apocalypse.” On the right you see “Man with the Mandible.” For me, the most disturbing one is the three stillborn babies. Birds and other animals also populate the room, and the back wall is lined with a terrifying number of parasites. This is the most freaky and arresting part of the museum. It’s not for the faint-hearted but it is undeniably fascinating.
Displaying Human Remains
It’s worth pausing to acknowledge that we don’t know who the humans preserved by Fragonard were, or how he ended up with their bodies. Some accounts say he pulled corpses out of the Seine, but it doesn’t sound like he obtained them in a legal or ethical way. This isn’t just an 18th century issue. Similar criticisms have been raised about recent exhibits like Body World (allegedly linked to trafficked corpses) and Bodies (which used unclaimed bodies from China). Whether it’s right or wrong, I view the pieces at the Fragonard Museum in a more historical context, not unlike mummies. For me, this museum is too fascinating to miss but I completely understand it being too distasteful for others.
Other Offbeat Museums in Paris
- The Catacombs of Paris: One of the most incredible and unique parts of Paris. Explore a section of the underground, lined with the bones of over six million Parisians. Book tickets in advance—they always sell out.
- Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Museum of Hunting and Nature): A beautifully designed museum that blends taxidermy, contemporary art, and history.
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