The Musée des beaux-arts de Marseille is one of the main museums in the city of

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, in the

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (; or , ; commonly shortened to PACA; en, Provence-Alps-French Riviera, italic=yes; also branded as Région Sud) is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, the far southeastern on the mainland. Its pre ...

region. It occupies a wing of the Palais Longchamp, and displays a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the 16th to 19th centuries.

History

The museum is one of five created by the Consulate in 1801, in the main cities of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The basis for the collection was the seizure by revolutionaries of state property after the consular decree of 1 September 1800. Successive deposits of state property were made in 1814, 1817 and 1819, and throughout the rest of the 19th century. In 1856, the Borély collection was acquired by the museum. In 1869, the museum moved into the left wing of the Palais Longchamp. As of 2012, the museum was closed for renovations.

Building

The museum is located in the right wing of the Palais Longchamp, built by the architect

Henri-Jacques Espérandieu Henri-Jacques Espérandieu (22 February 1829 – 11 November 1874) was an architect who made his career in Marseille, France. He was responsible for some of the most famous buildings of the city, including the "Bonne mère", Notre-Dame de la Garde. ...

between 1862 and 1869 to commemorate the arrival in the city of waters of the

Durance The Durance (; ''Durença'' in the Occitan classical norm or ''Durènço'' in the Mistralian norm) is a major river in Southeastern France. A left tributary of the Rhône, it is long. Its drainage basin is .Canal de Marseille The Canal de Marseille is a major source of drinking water for all of Marseille, the largest city in Provence, France. The canal along its main artery is long but has additional of minor arteries. Its construction lasted 15 years and was directed ...

. The building has been designated a Historical Monument. A colonnade connects the museum to the monumental central fountain of the chateau. The building has rich sculptural decoration, including the group of the Durance by Jules Cavelier and four wild animals by Antoine-Louis Barye at the entrance. On the stairs of the museum there are two paintings by

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Beau ...

: ''Marseille, gateway to the East'' and ''Marseilles, a Greek colony''.

Collections

Paintings

The painting collection includes works of the French, Italian, Spanish and Northern (Flanders and Holland) schools. *Of the French school, the best represented, there are paintings by

Eustache Le Sueur Eustache Le Sueur or Lesueur (19 November 161730 April 1655) was a French artist and one of the founders of the French Academy of Painting. He is known primarily for his paintings of religious subjects. He was a leading exponent of the neoclas ...

Simon Vouet Simon Vouet (; 9 January 1590 – 30 June 1649) was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists created religious and ...

, Sébastien Bourdon, Charles Le Brun, Étienne Peson, some rare canvasses of the Marseille sculptor

Pierre Paul Puget Pierre Paul Puget (16 October 1620 – 2 December 1694) was a French Baroque painter, sculptor, architect and engineer. His sculpture expressed emotion, pathos and drama, setting it apart from the more classical and academic sculpture of the S ...

, others by Philippe de Champaigne,

Nicolas Mignard Nicolas Mignard, called Mignard d’Avignon, (7 February 1606 (baptised) – 20 March 1668) was a French painter known for his religious and mythological scenes and portraits.Lada Nikolenko. "Mignard." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. O ...

Pierre Mignard Pierre Mignard or Pierre Mignard I (17 November 1612 – 30 May 1695), called "Mignard le Romain" to distinguish him from his brother Nicolas Mignard, was a French painter known for his religious and mythological scenes and portraits. He was a ...

, Louis Cretey,

Charles de La Fosse Charles de La Fosse (or Lafosse; 15 June 1636 – 13 December 1716) was a French painter born in Paris. Life He was one of the most noted and least servile pupils of Le Brun, under whose direction he shared in the chief of the great decorativ ...

, Alexandre-François Desportes, Hyacinthe Rigaud,

Jean-Baptiste Oudry Jean-Baptiste Oudry (; 17 March 1686 – 30 April 1755) was a French Rococo painter, engraver, and tapestry designer. He is particularly well known for his naturalistic pictures of animals and his hunt pieces depicting game. His son, Jacques- ...

Charles-Joseph Natoire Charles-Joseph Natoire (3 March 1700 – 23 August 1777) was a French painter in the Rococo manner, a pupil of François Lemoyne and director of the French Academy in Rome, 1751–1775. Considered during his lifetime the equal of François Bouch ...

Jean-Marc Nattier Jean-Marc Nattier (17 March 1685 – 7 November 1766) was a French painter. He was born in Paris, the second son of Marc Nattier (1642–1705), a portrait painter, and of Marie Courtois (1655–1703), a miniaturist. He is noted for hi ...

Charles-André van Loo Carle or Charles-André van Loo (; 15 February 1705 – 15 July 1765) was a French painter, son of the painter Louis-Abraham van Loo, a younger brother of Jean-Baptiste van Loo and grandson of Jacob van Loo. He was the most famous member of a ...

, Hubert Robert,

Claude Joseph Vernet Claude-Joseph Vernet (14 August 17143 December 1789) was a French painter. His son, Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, was also a painter. Life and work Vernet was born in Avignon. When only fourteen years of age he aided his father, Antoine Verne ...

, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Joseph-Marie Vien, Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun,

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away f ...

and from the 19th century by

Théodore Chassériau Théodore Chassériau (September 20, 1819 – October 8, 1856) was a Dominican-born French Romantic painter noted for his portraits, historical and religious paintings, allegorical murals, and Orientalist images inspired by his travels to Alger ...

Charles-François Daubigny Charles-François Daubigny ( , , ; 15 February 181719 February 1878) was a French painter, one of the members of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of impressionism. He was also a prolific printmaker, mostly in etch ...

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and ...

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875), or simply Camille Corot, is a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast ...

Jean-François Millet Jean-François Millet (; 4 October 1814 – 20 January 1875) was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realism ...

Honoré Daumier Honoré-Victorin Daumier (; February 26, 1808February 10, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second N ...

, etc. * A significant number of Italian paintings are also present, including works by

Pietro Perugino Pietro Perugino (, ; – 1523), born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pupil. E ...

Giulio Romano Giulio Romano (, ; – 1 November 1546), is the acquired name of Giulio Pippi, who was an Italian painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the sixteenth-cent ...

Jacopo Bassano Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510 – 14 February 1592), known also as Jacopo dal Ponte, was an Italian painter who was born and died in Bassano del Grappa near Venice, and took the village as his surname. Trained in the workshop of his father, Francesco t ...

Giovanni Cariani Giovanni Cariani (c. 1490–1547), also known as Giovanni Busi or Il Cariani, was an Italian painter of the high-Renaissance, active in Venice and the Venetian mainland, including Bergamo, thought to be his native city. Overview His father, a ...

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...

, Lavinia Fontana and

Cristofano Allori Cristofano Allori (17 October 1577 – 1 April 1621) was an Italian painter of the late Florentine Mannerist school, painting mostly portraits and religious subjects. Allori was born at Florence and received his first lessons in painting from his ...

from the 16th century, and with

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci (; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of t ...

Carlo Dolci Carlo (or Carlino) Dolci (25 May 1616 – 17 January 1686) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence, known for highly finished religious pictures, often repeated in many versions. Biography He was born in Florence, ...

Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religi ...

, Guercino, Gioacchino Assereto, Mattia Preti,

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (baptized 23 March 16095 May 1664) was an Italian Baroque painter, printmaker and draftsman, of the Genoese school. He is best known now for his etchings, and as the inventor of the printmaking technique of monoty ...

Carlo Maratta Carlo Maratta or Maratti (13 May 162515 December 1713) was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition ...

Giovanni Lanfranco Giovanni Lanfranco (26 January 1582 – 30 November 1647) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Biography Giovanni Gaspare Lanfranco was born in Parma, the third son of Stefano and Cornelia Lanfranchi, and was placed as a page in the ho ...

, Luca Giordano,

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (August 30, 1727March 3, 1804) was an Italian painter and printmaker in etching. He was the son of artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and elder brother of Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo. Life history Domenico was born in ...

(''Le Christ et la femme adultère''), and also

Canaletto Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. Painter of city views or ...

and

Giovanni Paolo Panini Giovanni Paolo Panini or Pannini (17 June 1691 – 21 October 1765) was an Italian painter and architect who worked in Rome and is primarily known as one of the ''vedutisti'' ("view painters"). As a painter, Panini is best known for his vistas of ...

(''La Galerie de tableaux du cardinal Valenti Gonzaga'') from the 17th and 18th centuries. * Spanish paintings from the golden age are notably represented by

Jusepe de Ribera Jusepe de Ribera (1591 – 1652) was a painter and printmaker, who along with Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the singular Diego Velázquez, are regarded as the major artists of Spanish Baroque painting. Referrin ...

and

Antonio de Pereda Antonio de Pereda y Salgado ( – January 30, 1678) was a Spanish Baroque-era painter, best known for his still lifes. Biography Pereda was born in Valladolid, the eldest of three brothers from an artistic family. His father, mother and two b ...

. * The Northern schools from the same period are represented by works by Jan Brueghel the Younger,

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradit ...

(''Chasse au sanglier''),

Louis Finson Louis Finson, Lodewijk Finson or Ludovicus Finsonius (between 1574 and 1580 – 1617) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, copyist and art dealer. He painted portraits, religious compositions, allegorical paintings and genre scenes. Moving to Italy ...

Jacob Jordaens Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and tapestry designer known for his history paintings, genre scenes and portraits. After Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he was the leading ...

, Frans Snyders and

David Teniers the Younger David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile ar ...

Gallery

File:Cariani-Saint-Sébastien-Marseille.jpg,

, ''St Sebastian between St Roch and St Margaret'' File:Jacopo da Ponte 002.jpg,

, ''Construction of Noah's Ark'' File:Louis Finson - Samson and Delilah.jpg,

, ''Samson and Delilah'' File:Jordaens La pêche miraculeuse.jpg,

, ''The miraculous draught of fish'' File:Rubens Adoration des bergers.jpg,

, ''Adoration of the shepherds'' File:Stomer Le roi David.jpg,

Matthias Stom Matthias Stom or Matthias Stomer (c. 1600 – after 1652) was a Dutch, or possibly Flemish, Painting, painter who is only known for the works he produced during his residence in Italy. He was influenced by the work of non-Italian followers of Cara ...

, ''

King David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

'' File:Saint_Sebastiano_by_Marco_Antonio_Bassetti.jpg,

Marco Antonio Bassetti Marco Antonio Bassetti (1586–1630) was an Italian painter. Life He was born in Verona, and was a pupil of Felice Ricci. He then went to Venice where he was particularly influenced by the works of Tintoretto, Veronese and Jacopo Bassano. He i ...

, ''St Sebastian Tended by St Irene'' File:Vouet-Vierge-Marseille.jpg,

, ''Madonna and Child with a rose'' File:David San Rocco.jpg,

, ''Saint Roch interceding with the Virgin'' File:Bompard - Une rue de l'oasis de Chetma.jpg, Maurice Bompard, ''A street of the oasis Chetma'' File:Ziem - Quai du port à Marseille.jpg,

Félix Ziem Félix Ziem (26 February 1821 – 10 November 1911) was a French painter in the style of the Barbizon School, who also produced some Orientalist works. Biography He was born Félix-Francois Georges Philibert Ziem in Beaune in the Côte-d'O ...

''Quay of the port of Marseille''

Drawings

From the French school, there is a notable collection of drawings by

. The Italian school is represented with drawings by

Pontormo Jacopo Carucci (May 24, 1494 – January 2, 1557), usually known as ''Jacopo da Pontormo'', ''Jacopo Pontormo'', or simply Pontormo, was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School. His work represents a profound sty ...

, Guercino,

Salvator Rosa Salvator Rosa (1615 –1673) is best known today as an Italian Baroque painter, whose romanticized landscapes and history paintings, often set in dark and untamed nature, exerted considerable influence from the 17th century into the early 19t ...

and with twenty one Tuscan drawings from the 16th and early 17th centuries by

Fra Angelico Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro; February 18, 1455) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his '' Lives of the Artists'' as having "a rare and perfect talent".Giorgio Vasari, ''Lives of the Artists''. Pengu ...

, Bartolommeo Bandinelli, Francesco Salviati,

Baldassare Peruzzi Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi (7 March 1481 – 6 January 1536) was an Italian architect and painter, born in a small town near Siena (in Ancaiano, ''frazione'' of Sovicille) and died in Rome. He worked for many years with Bramante, Raphael, and lat ...

, Il Sodoma and

. File:Baccio Bandinelli - Larron crucifié.jpg, Bartolommeo Bandinelli, ''Study of a crucified thief'', 16th century File:Francesco Salviati - Figure de dos.jpg, Francesco Salviati, ''Man seen from the back carrying an urn'', 16th century File:Giorgio Vasari - Saint Pierre.jpg,

, ''St Peter of Verona exorcising a demon personified by a Madonna and Child'', 1570s. File:Pierino da Vinci - Le Comte Ugolin.jpg, Pierino da Vinci, ''The count Ugolino and his children in prison, visited by Hunger'', 16th century

Sculptures

The museum possesses a remarkable collection of sculpture by

(1620–1694), as well as ''La Méditation'', a masterpiece by

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

, offered to the museum by the artist himself.

References

Citations Sources * * *

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musee des beaux-arts de Marseille 4th arrondissement of Marseille Museums in Marseille Art museums and galleries in France