Museum of Fine Arts
Museum of Fine Arts, Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen
France, Rouen
The Museum of Fine Arts in Rouen is one of the largest museums in Normandy. Located in the historic center of Rouen. The exposition of the museum is presented in 60 halls; the most significant are the collections of the 17th and 19th centuries.
The Rouen Art Museum has the status of "national museum of France".
The museum is located in an old building. The wing along the modern rue Jean Lecanuet was built from 1877 to 1880. The second wing, together with the central building and the Rouen Library, was built from 1884 to 1888. The main entrance to the museum is framed by two statues by Joseph Tournoy depicting two prominent natives of Normandy - Nicolas Poussin and Michel Angier.
The museum presents a collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings and art objects from the 15th century to the present day, including a unique collection of Russian icons of the 16th - early 19th centuries.
The museum has an exceptional collection of paintings, donated to it in 1909 by the French industrialist and philanthropist Francois Depeux. Thanks to this donation, the Rouen Museum of Fine Arts has one of the finest collections of Impressionist works in France. The collection of drawings includes over 8,000 works, from the Renaissance to the 20th century.
The period of the 15th and 16th centuries in the museum's collection is represented by the works of Italian Renaissance masters (Perugino, Veronese, Giampetrino, Bassano, Fontana, Palma (junior) and Carracci), as well as the works of French, Flemish and Dutch masters (Gerard David, Ludovico Brea, Francois Clouet , Peter Aartsen, Martin de Vos, Pierre Letelier and others).
The 17th century painting collection is one of the museum's finest collections, in terms of the number of works on display, their quality and the variety of genres of works representing all the great European schools of painting of that century.
French painting of the 18th century is represented mainly by genre painting, as well as landscapes and portraits, from the Rococo era to the period of classicism (Hyacinthe Rigaud, Francois Boucher, Jean-Francois de Troy, Charles Andre Van Loo, Charles-Joseph Natoire, Jean-Marc Nattier, Nicolas Lancret, Jean Honore Fragonard, Hubert Robert and others).
In the 19th century, the French school of painting dominated Europe, thanks in part to its innovations. The Rouen Art Museum has a unique collection of works from this century, especially from the period of Impressionism, when many masters of this direction worked in Normandy and Rouen. The initial period of the 19th century is represented in the museum by paintings by Vigée-Lebrun, David, Ingres), Boilly, Eugene Delacroix and others. The work of Theodore Gericault, a native of Rouen, is represented in the museum's collection by 11 canvases.
The chronology of the development of impressionism, symbolism and then conditional post-impressionism is shown in the museum's collection by masterpieces of the great masters of fine arts. The work of Claude Monet is represented by 11 paintings, including the work of the Rouen Cathedral cycle. The collection also contains works by Gustave Caillebotte, Jan Barthold Jongkind, Eugene Boudin, Edgar Degas, Henri Fantin-Latour, Puvis de Chavannes, Gustave Dore, Gustave Moreau, Alfred Sisley, Armand Guillaumin, Renoir, Pissarro, Lebour, Vallotton and other artists.
The collection of 20th century paintings contains works by both French and foreign masters. The work of the Duchamp family is widely represented, namely the works of Marcel Duchamp and Jacques Villon. Also in this collection are paintings by Dufy, Blanche, Vuillard, Luce, Derain, Frieze, Modigliani, Kupka, Maurice Denis, Albert Gleizes, Roger de la Fresnay, Jean Metzinger, Emile Isanbar and other masters.
Several collections of the museum feature paintings by post-impressionist masters of the Rouen school of painting.
