Brief history of the collections:
First designed as a place of pilgrimage, the museum acquires original and illustrated editions, portraits of the writer and painted and drawn works illustrating his novels. Interest in biography led to a search for personal objects and portraits of members of Balzac's family and his acquaintances. From the 1980s, the priority given to writing resulted in the creation of a collection of manuscripts. The expansion of the curiosities allowed to open the collection to Théophile Gautier in 1997 as well as the progressive acquisition of a considerable fund of very high quality graphic works relating to French society between 1820 and 1850: Daumier, Gavarni, Grandville, Monnier , etc. The Maison de Balzac also placed emphasis on the view of The Human Comedy by artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and preserves original works by Pierre Alechinsky, Eduardo Arroyo, Enrico Baj, Olivier Blanckart, Louise Bourgeois, Pol Bury , André Derain, Paul Jouve, Albert Marquet, André Masson, Pablo Picasso...
