The Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy (), one of the oldest museums in

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 ...

, is housed in one of the pavilions on the

Place Stanislas The Place Stanislas is a large Pedestrian zone, pedestrianised Town Square, square in the France, French city of Nancy, France, Nancy, in the Lorraine historic region. Built between 1752 and 1756 on the orders of Stanislaus I, former King of Polan ...

, in the heart of the 18th-century urban ensemble, a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

. The museum displays an important collection of European paintings and is largely open to design, including a gallery dedicated to

Jean Prouvé Jean Prouvé (; 8 April 1901 – 23 March 1984) was a French metal worker, self-taught architect and designer. Le Corbusier designated Prouvé a constructeur, blending architecture and engineering. Prouvé's main achievement was transferring m ...

or the Daum factory.

History

The Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy is one of the oldest in

. Its foundation intervenes, as for other French museum institutions, during the revolutionary period. The first collections are made from the seizures of the property of the clergy or aristocratic families who emigrate to flee France and the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

. Under the First Empire, with the signing of the peace treaty between France and Austria in Lunéville in 1801, Napoleon I brought 30 paintings from the Central Museum in Lorraine (now the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

). Thus, the museum of Nancy receives a large set of French paintings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The same year, the museum enjoys, like 15 other museums in France, shipments of works under the Chaptal decree. These paintings come from seized French collections or Napoleonic conquests in Italy. Among the first works to form the collections of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, some are orders from the ducal family of Lorraine: * The Annunciation by Caravaggio (1608) * a copy of the famous The Wedding of Cana (Veronese) made by Claude Charles in 1702 for the convent of Cordeliers Nancy. In 1930, the town council decided to convert the building into a museum in order to host the fine art collection hitherto held in the city hall. The museum, called "museum", changes several times in its early history, before being installed by the City Council of 18 May 1825 in the City Hall of Nancy. 1791 - 1792: Hotel of the

University of Nancy A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

(ground floor) 1793 - 1804: old disused chapel of the Convent of the Visitation 1804 - 1814: premises of the old university, current Bibliothèque Patrimoniale de Nancy 1814 - 1828: former Royal College of Medicine (current pavilion occupied by the museum) 1828 - 1936: Nancy Town Hall In 1936, he moved to the pavilion he still occupies at Stanislas, the former Royal College of Medicine. The museum then benefits from an extension due to Jacques and Michel André.

Architecture

The pavilion that houses the museum since 1936 belongs to the ensemble designed by the architect

Emmanuel Héré Immanuel or Emmanuel (, "God swith us"; Koine Greek: ) is a Hebrew name that appears in the Book of Isaiah (7:14) as a sign that God will protect the House of David. The Gospel of Matthew ( Matthew 1:22 –23) interprets this as a prophecy of ...

in the mid-eighteenth century for the former King of Poland and Duke of Lorraine and Bar, Stanislas. The main facade thus presents a classical style, in a rocaille set inscribed on the

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

. This pavilion is installed on the old fortifications of Nancy, including the bastion of Haussonville (15th century), which the visitor can discover at level -1 of the museum. In 1936, the pavilion was modernized and extended by architects Jacques and Michel André, laureate of the architectural competition launched by the municipality for the museum, 5 years earlier. The architects propose a wing in the continuity of the XVIIIe pavilion, on two levels. The garden facade is an important part of the architects' project and will be taken up again in 2019 for the poster of the exhibition organized on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the second renovation of the establishment. The double-decker staircase, with

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

lines, all in concrete, is the other highlight of this extension. In February 1999, after spectacular extension work (including a major archaeological excavation), a new contemporary wing designed by Laurent Beaudouin's agency was inaugurated. The exhibition surfaces are then multiplied by two, an auditorium is created. In 2001, a storage's room dedicated to the conservation of graphic arts was set up to accommodate a large donation, then anonymous, of more than 15,000 works. The name of the donors is revealed in 2011, with the death of Jacques Thuiller. The donation today bears the name of Jacques and Guy Thuiller. In 2000, Felice Varini made inside the museum Ellipse orange évidée par sept disques, an anamorphosis visible from several floors. In 2002 was installed ''L'Hommage à Lamour'', a work created in situ by

François Morellet François Morellet (30 April 1926 – 10 May 2016) was a French contemporary abstract painter, sculptor, and light artist. His early work prefigured minimal art and conceptual art and he played a prominent role in the development of geometrica ...

. Visible from the

and placed on the building of conservation, it is about a large horizontal white rectangle, with in each corner

neon Neon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is the second noble gas in the periodic table. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with approximately two-thirds the density of ...

yellow curved in

volutes A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the Capital (architecture), capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite order, Composite column capitals. ...

. In 2012, the museum reopens its doors following lighting and energy saving. A new museography is then born, integrating the creation of a space dedicated to

. At level -1, a gallery is dedicated to Daum glassworks. Spaces are also reserved for graphic or Asian arts. The large collection of paintings is displayed in the 18th century pavilion in chronological order. In 2018, the permanent route is reworked to include works from the Lorrain Museum, deposited during the renovation of the Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine. In the future, the museum intends to develop the presentation of contemporary creation.

Collection

Some of the painters whose work is featured in the collections are

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

Tintoretto Jacopo Robusti (late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594), best known as Tintoretto ( ; , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized th ...

Jan Brueghel the Younger Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Younger ( , ; ; 13 September 1601 – 1 September 1678) was a Flemish Baroque painter. He was the son of Jan Brueghel the Elder, and grandson of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, both prominent painters who ...

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

Georges de La Tour Georges de La Tour (13 March 1593 – 30 January 1652) was a French Baroque painter, who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648. He painted mostly religious chia ...

Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun (; baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French Painting, painter, Physiognomy, physiognomist, Aesthetics, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. He served as a court painter to Louis XIV, ...

, Ribera,

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of clas ...

, Claude Gellée (known as ''Le Lorrain'' and ''Claude''),

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Early l ...

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 ...

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (art movement), R ...

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 ...

Paul Signac Paul Victor Jules Signac ( , ; 11 November 1863 – 15 August 1935) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, with Georges Seurat, helped develop the artistic technique Pointillism. Biography Paul-Victor-Jules Signac was born in Paris on ...

, Modigliani,

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Raoul Dufy Raoul Dufy (; 3 June 1877 – 23 March 1953) was a French painter associated with the Fauvist movement. He gained recognition for his vibrant and decorative style, which became popular in various forms, such as textile designs, and public build ...

Constance Mayer Marie-Françoise Constance Mayer La Martinière (9 March 1775 – 26 May 1821) was a French painter of portraits, allegorical subjects, miniatures and genre works. She had "a brilliant but bitter career."Petteys, Chris, "Dictionary of Women Ar ...

... 15th-18th century art File:Vierge à l'Enfant, saint Jean et deux anges.jpg,

, ''The Virgin and Child with Saint John and two Angels'' File:Les compteurs d'argent Nancy 3018.jpg, Anonymous, ''

Tax collectors A tax collector (also called a taxman) is a person who collects unpaid taxes from other people or corporations on behalf of a government. The term could also be applied to those who audit tax returns or work for a revenue agency. Tax collectors ...

'' (1575-1600) File:Corneille de Lyon - Portrait de Robert de Lénoncourt - Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy.jpg,

Corneille de Lyon Corneille de Lyon (early 16th century – 8 November 1575 (buried)) was a Dutch people, Dutch painter of portraits who was active in Lyon, France, from 1533 until his death. In France and the Netherlands he is also still known as ''Corneille de ...

, ''Portrait of Robert de Lénoncourt'' File:Le Tintoret, La déploration du Christ.JPG,

, ''Lamentation of Christ'' File:José de Ribera 063.jpg,

José de Ribera Jusepe de Ribera (; baptised 17 February 1591 – 3 November 1652) was a Spanish painter and printmaker. Ribera, Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the singular Diego Velázquez, are regarded as the major artists of Spani ...

(1591-1652) File:Jan Lievens - Christus aan het kruis.jpg,

Jan Lievens Jan Lievens (24 October 1607 – 4 June 1674) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who was associated with his close contemporary Rembrandt, a year older, in the early parts of their careers. They shared a birthplace in Leiden, training with Pieter ...

(1607-1674), ''Crucifixion'' File:Transfiguration-Rubens.JPG,

, ''Transfiguration of Christ'' File:Annunciation-Caravaggio.jpg,

, ''

Annunciation The Annunciation (; ; also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord; ) is, according to the Gospel of Luke, the announcement made by the archangel Gabriel to Ma ...

'' 19th-20th century art File:Edouard Manet Automne Mery Laurent.jpg,

(1832-1883) File:Les cinquante-trois relais du Tôkaidô - Sakanoshita.jpg, Utagawa Kunisada, ''View of Sakanoshita (Sakanoshita no zu)'', from the series ''Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō with Beauties'' File:Vase Feuilles d'Automne Daum MBAN 24032013.jpg, Vase from Daum File:Toussaint 1888 800.jpg, Émile Friant (1863-1932) File:Henri-Edmond Cross-La Ferme, matin-Musée des beaux-arts de Nancy.jpg,

Henri-Edmond Cross Henri-Edmond Cross (; 20 May 1856 – 16 May 1910), born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix (), was a French painter and printmaker. He is most acclaimed as a master of Neo-Impressionism and he played an important role in shaping the second phase ...

, ''La Ferme, matin'' File:Le Démolisseur P Signac Nancy 2718.jpg,

, ''The Demolisher'' (1863-1935) File:Modigliani Nancy 231207.jpg,

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...

(1884-1920) File:Roger de La Fresnaye, 1910, Deux nus dans un paysage, oil on canvas, 59 x 74 cm, MNAM, Centre Pompidou, Paris.jpg,

Roger de La Fresnaye Roger de La Fresnaye (; 11 July 1885 – 27 November 1925) was a French Cubist painter. Early years and education La Fresnaye was born in Le Mans where his father, an officer in the French army, was temporarily stationed. The La Fresnayes were ...

, ''Two naked women in a landscape''

References

External links

Official museum website

Website in English about the Fine Arts Museum of Nancy
{{Authority control Fine Arts of Nancy Buildings and structures in Nancy, France Museums in Meurthe-et-Moselle 1793 in art Art museums and galleries established in the 1790s Museums established in 1793 1793 establishments in France Tourist attractions in Nancy, France

History

Architecture

Collection

References

See also

External links