ART MUSEUM

This is Rouen’s museum institution, managed by the Réunion des musées métropolitains. On the esplanade Marcel-Duchamp, which extends the square Verdrel, its facade imposes its ^19th century style, typical of the great French museums. Its collections were built up from 1790 onwards, and presented to the public from 1799 in the Jesuit church, then in the new town hall, where it was inaugurated in 1809 with a catalog of 244 paintings. Enrichment of the collections took off considerably during the ^19th century: Gabriel Lemonnier, one of the founders, brought in Velázquez, with his Democritus, and Delacroix’s masterpiece, Justice of Trajan. Clouet, Van Dyck, Puget, Ingres and Moreau followed, thanks to purchases and donations, then Gérard David, Véronèse and Rubens, thanks to Napoleonic seizures in 1803. Between 1823 and 1878, the collection grew from 300 to 600 paintings, making the museum "the most complete in France after Paris", and deserving of a new building. Architect Louis Sauvageot was responsible for the project, which led to the opening of a first wing in 1880, followed by a second in 1888. One hundred years later, a complete renovation under the leadership of Andrée Putman was completed in 1994. The ^20th century saw exceptional donations: François Depeaux’s Impressionists, the Jacques-Émile Blanche collection, Suzanne and Henri Baderou’s 400 paintings and 5,000 drawings, Paul Alexandre’s Modigliani, and purchases that gave the museum its international status: Caravaggio and Poussin. Today, the museum houses one of France’s most renowned public collections, combining paintings, sculptures, drawings and objets d’art from all schools, from the ^15th century to the present day. Géricault, Delacroix, Corot, Gustave Moreau, Degas, Sisley, Caillebotte and, of course, Monet, whose numerous versions of La Cathédrale de Rouen and Vue générale de Rouen can be admired. What was France’s first provincial Impressionist collection is the heart of the great Normandie Impressionniste festival, held every 4 years in the Normandy region. The next edition will take place in 2024, with exhibitions focusing on English painters James Abbot McNeill Whistler and David Hockney. Under the glass roof, the sculpture garden is the ideal place for lunch or tea. This is also the starting point for the temporary and thematic exhibitions organized throughout the year.