Exposition Le Cirque, fabrique de l'art moderne + Collections Permanentes

Access to the temporary exhibition, the permanent collections, the gardens and the café. The museum is open every day from 10am to 6pm. 45pm. The Museum was founded in 1960 in one of the oldest buildings on the Butte, dating from the 17th century: the Maison du Bel Air.

Surrounded by gardens, it was a place of creation for many artists such as Auguste Renoir, Émile Bernard, Raoul Dufy, Charles Camoin, Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo.

In Montmartre, the circus was far more than a spectacle: it fed the imagination of artists and accompanied the birth of modern art. It is no coincidence that Degas, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Chagall, Léger and many others found themselves in the circus stands.

Bodies in balance, play of light, dazzling colours: the circus offers an unprecedented spectacle of movement, rhythm and metamorphosis. Through this exhibition, discover how this "laboratory of creation" profoundly renewed the vision of the avant-gardes.

Le Cirque, fabrique de l'art moderneExhibition from 16 October 2026 to 14 February 2027Through a chronological route: paintings, sculptures, drawings, posters, costumes and objects highlight the decisive role of the circus.

It enabled the development of the visual languages of modernity.

As the neighbourhood established itself as one of the epicentres of artistic modernity, the Cirque Fernando, later renamed the Cirque Medrano, was an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Degas, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Chagall, Rouault, Léger and many others.