Robert Doisneau in Modena: 135 Prints at the Palazzo dei Musei

Palazzo dei Musei, Modena — photo by Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The kiss is the least interesting thing in the room

Almost everyone arrives for one photograph: the couple kissing in front of the Hôtel de Ville, Paris, 1950. It is in the exhibition, and people stop in front of it, and that is fine.

But the 135 prints at the Palazzo dei Musei make a different argument. Robert Doisneau spent his life photographing factory assembly lines, bar counters, concierges in their lodges, village fairs, jazz clubs and school classrooms. The subtitle the exhibition gives him — happiness in the details of everyday life — is accurate rather than sentimental: he was a photographer of ordinary working Paris who happened, once, to make an image that the world turned into a postcard.

The prints are silver gelatin, kept for decades in the Atelier Robert Doisneau in Montrouge. The route through the show is deliberately not chronological: interiors and street scenes alternate, which stops you reading it as a career and makes you read it as a way of looking. Alongside the kiss there are Les Frères (Paris, 1934), Concierge aux lunettes (Paris, 1945) and Mademoiselle Anita (Paris, 1951). The exhibition is curated by Gabriel Bauret.

Practical details

Where. The new wing of the Palazzo dei Musei — the building in the photograph above. The entrance for the exhibition is the ticket office at viale Vittorio Veneto 9, not the main museum courtyard — worth knowing, because people walk in circles looking for it.

When. Until 24 January 2027. Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–19:00, closed on Mondays; the ticket desk shuts half an hour before. Over the holidays the hours change: open 7 December 10–19, 24 December 10–14, 25 December 14–19, 31 December 10–14, 1 January 14–19.

Tickets. €13 full, €11 reduced, €4 for schools. There is also a €15 Open ticket sold online only, valid on any opening day from the day after purchase — worth it if your plans are not fixed, since it removes the need to pick a slot in advance.

How long. Give it an hour and a half. It is a show you walk slowly.

Why it fits a weekend in Modena

A photography exhibition is the right thing to have in your back pocket for a Modena trip, because it solves the two situations that catch travellers out: the Monday when half the city is shut — except this one is also closed on Mondays, so plan around that — and the rainy afternoon between lunch and dinner.

The Palazzo dei Musei is in the historic centre, a short walk from the Duomo and from Piazza Grande, so it slots into a day on foot without reorganising anything.

If you are planning dates, our what's on in Modena page lists it alongside the theatre season, so you can see in one view what is open while you are here.