The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mulhouse is a municipal

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; ; Alsatian language, Alsatian: ''Mìlhüsa'' ; , meaning "Mill (grinding), mill house") is a France, French city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France). It is near the Fran ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It originated with the '' Société industrielle de Mulhouse (SIM)'', a

learned society A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...

established in 1826 by local industrialists such as Dollfus, Koechlin, and Schlumberger, which had begun collecting artworks in 1831, and was founded in 1864 by Frédéric Engel-Dollfus.

The building

Since 1985, the museum is housed in a former

hôtel particulier () is the French term for a grand urban mansion, comparable to a Townhouse (Great Britain), British townhouse. Whereas an ordinary (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a ...

, the ''Villa Steinbach'', which consists of a core from 1788 and a wing of 1924, added by the then owner, the SIM. Between 1883 and 1944, the museum had been housed in the monumental building now used for the Musée de l'impression sur étoffes.

The collection

Due to the insufficient size of the current building only a small fraction of the ca. 1,000 paintings in the collection can be shown. Over half of the paintings still belong to the ''Société industrielle de Mulhouse'' and are on permanent loan to the museum. Many of the paintings belonging to the SIM were purchased at the Salon de Paris and, especially, at the Salon de Mulhouse, which took place 16 times between 1836 and 1912 (in 1899,

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( ; ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). ...

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

, and

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French people, French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, fe ...

participated in the Salon de Mulhouse with two paintings each, none of which was purchased by the SIM. Monet and Renoir did the same again in 1908, with the same result.) The main focus of the collection is French art from (roughly) 1830 to 1930, with Alsatian painters active in France, such as

Jean-Jacques Henner Jean-Jacques Henner (5 March 1829 – 23 July 1905) was a French painter, noted for his use of sfumato and chiaroscuro in painting nudes, religious subjects and portraits. Biography Henner was born at Bernwiller (Alsace). He began his stud ...

(of whom the museum owns 44 oil paintings), Jean Benner, Emmanuel Benner, Camille Alfred Pabst, Gustave Brion, Marcel Rieder, Henri Zuber, Charles Walch... sharing the walls with Courbet, Isabey,

Boudin Boudin () is a type of sausage found in several French-speaking cultures. The added ingredients vary in French, Luxembourgish, Belgian, Swiss, Québecois, Acadian, Aostan, Louisiana Creole, and Cajun cuisine. Some variations such as boudin ...

, Bonnat,

Martin Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

, Cormon,

Clairin Clairin (, , ) is a distilled alcoholic spirit made from sugarcane produced in Haiti, that undergoes the same distillation process as rhum, although not as refined. There are between 500 and 600 micro-distilleries in Haiti, compared to fewer th ...

, Laurens, Hébert, Merson, Marquet, and many others. The museum also displays a small collection of old master paintings featuring artists from

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

(

Sebastiano Ricci Sebastiano Ricci (1 August 165915 May 1734) was an Italian Baroque painter of the late Baroque period in Venetian painting. About the same age as Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Tie ...

), the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

(

Jacob van Ruisdael Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (; 1629 – 10 March 1682) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achie ...

), and

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

(

Pieter Brueghel the Younger Pieter Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Younger ( , ; ; between 23 May and 10 October 1564 – between March and May 1638) was a Flemish painting, Flemish painter known for numerous copies after his father Pieter Bruegel the Elder's ...

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 artist ...

) in addition to French masters (

Hyacinthe Rigaud Jacint Rigau-Ros i Serra (; 18 July 1659 – 29 December 1743), known in French as Hyacinthe Rigaud (), was a Catalan-French baroque painter most famous for his portraits of Louis XIV and other members of the French nobility. Biography Rigau ...

François Boucher François Boucher ( , ; ; 29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories ...

); a small collection of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Germanic paintings and sculptures (on loan from the

Musée historique de Mulhouse The Musée historique de Mulhouse is a municipal history museum and archaeology museum in Mulhouse, France. It is housed since 1969 in Mulhouse's Old Town Hall, a Northern Renaissance building dating mainly from 1552, which is protected as a Mo ...

); and post-

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

art, essentially from France (

Aurélie Nemours Aurelie Nemours (29 October 1910 – 27 January 2005) was a French painter who made abstract geometrical paintings and was highly influenced by De Stijl, or neoplasticism. Biography Aurelie Nemours was born 29 October 1910 in Paris, France. ...

Gallery of notable works

See also: Paintings in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mulhouse Jacob van Ruisdael, Entrée de Forêt.jpg, ''Entrance to a Forest'' (Jacob van Ruisdael) Boucher, Le Jugement de Pâris.jpg, ''The Judgement of Paris'' (François Boucher) 1869 Jean-Jacques Henner - Woman on a black divan.jpg, ''Woman on a Black Divan'' (Jean-Jacques Henner) William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Flora And Zephyr (1875) transparency.png, ''Flora and Zephyr'' (William Bouguereau) Emmanuel Benner, Habitation lacustre.jpg, ''Lakeside Dwelling'' (Emmanuel Benner) Francesco Francia, Vénus et Cupidon.jpg, ''Venus and Cupid'' (

Francesco Francia __NOTOC__ Francesco Francia, whose real name was Francesco Raibolini (1447 – 5 January 1517) was an Italian painter, goldsmith, and medallist from Bologna, who was also director of the city mint.Levinson:492 He may have trained with Marco Zop ...

) Luc-Olivier Merson, L’Arrivée à Béthléem.jpg, ''The Arrival at Bethlehem'' (

Luc-Olivier Merson Luc-Olivier Merson (21 May 1846 - 13 November 1920) was a French academic painter and illustrator. He was also known for his postage stamp and currency designs. Biography Born Nicolas Luc-Olivier Merson in Paris, France, he grew up in an arti ...

) Laurens, L'attente.jpg, ''Waiting'' (

Jean-Paul Laurens Jean-Paul Laurens (; 28 March 1838 – 23 March 1921) was a romanticism French painter and sculptor, and he is one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style. Biography Laurens was born in Fourquevaux and was a pupil of Léon ...

) Albert Marquet, Le port de Rabat.jpg, ''The Harbour of Rabat'' (

Albert Marquet Albert Marquet (; 27 March 1875 – 14 June 1947) was a French painter. He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse. Marquet subsequently painted in a more naturalistic style, primarily landscapes, bu ...

) La Belle Italienne.jpg, ''The Beautiful Italian Woman'' ( Georgette Agutte)

References

Bibliography

*Isabelle Dubois-Brinkmann: ''Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mulhouse. Œuvres choisies.'' I.D. l'Édition, November 2019. .

External links

{{Commonscat, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mulhouse
Official websiteMusée des Beaux-Arts de Mulhouse (68)
on ''Musées Grand Est'' Museums established in 1864

Buildings and structures in Mulhouse