Musee des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, Dijon

Musee des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, Dijon

The Museum of Fine Arts of Burgundy is one of the oldest museums in France, established in 1787 during the Age of Enlightenment.

The Museum of Fine Arts of Burgundy is one of the oldest museums in France, established in 1787 during the Age of Enlightenment. The founding collection was created by François Devosge as an education model for art school students. It is housed in the former Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy in the historic center of Dijon, and has a good collection of 130,000 preserved paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, drawings, and other art objects spanning from ancient Egypt to the 20th century, with a focus on works from 15th century Burgundy and 18th century France.

The museum is divided in 2 sections - the Hall of the Statues which showcases the sculpture collection, and the Salon Conde, dedicated to paintings which celebrate the glory of the Condé, governors of Burgundy. Highlights of the collection are –

• Antiques Collection - Romanesque Egypt funerary portraits of Fayoum, and Gallic, Etruscan, Gallo-Roman, Greek, Cypriot and Middle Eastern ceramics, coins, statuettes, pottery, and glassware.
• Medieval Collection - art works commissioned and collected by the Dukes of Burgundy in Dijon including the Chartreuse de Champmol tombs of Philippe le Hardi and his son John the Fearless, Melchior Broederlam's altarpiece of 'The Annunciation', Robert Campin's 'The Nativity', Henri Bellechose's 'Altarpiece of St. George with a Carthusian Monk', and memorials of the Sainte-Chapelle and the Order of the Golden Fleece. The extensive collection of paintings includes works by Italian artists (Pietro Lorenzetti, Taddeo Gaddi), Flemish artists (Master of Flémalle, Albrecht Bouts) and Swiss and German paintings (Konrad Witz). There are sculptures from the School of Claus Sluter, and ecclesiastical objects of art.
• Collection of Works from the Renaissance to the 18th century - Italian Renaissance works by Lorenzo Lotto, Bernardo Luini, Giorgio Vasari, Titian, Jacopo Bassano, and Veronese (The Discovery of Moses); 17th century works by Burgundy locals Philippe Quantin, Jean Tassel, and Jean Dubois as well as Guido Reni (Adam and Eve in Paradise), Georges de La Tour (The Blower with the Lamp), Antoine Coysevox (bust of Louis XIV) and artists from Flanders (Pierre-Paul Rubens, Gaspard de Crayer, Brueghel); 18th century works by Giambattista Tiepolo, François Boucher, and Hubert Robert, Jean-François Colson's 'Le Repos', Carle van Loo's 'Saint George overcoming the Dragon', and bust of Rameau by Jean-Jacques Caffieri.
• 19th century Collection - works of Romanticism, Realism, Academism, Symbolism, and Impressionism, by artists such as Eugène Delacroix, Alfred Sisley (Saint-Mammès on the Loing), Edouard Manet (Méry Laurent in the Black Hat), Claude Monet (Étretat, Porte d'Aval: Fishing Boats leaving the Harbor), and local artists Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, François Rude, Jean -Baptiste Lallemand and Félix Trutat.
• 20th century Collection – works from the Second School of Paris by Nicolas de Stael, Maria-Helena Vieira da Silva, and Charles Lapicque.
• 21st century Collection - works by Yan-Pei Ming.