In the heart of the city of Tours, the Museum of Fine Arts unfolds in a exceptional historical settingA place inhabited by the Turones during the Gallic period—as evidenced by a stone inscription in the underground passages—it is also chosen as early as the 4th century by the first bishops, who left to posterity a precious chapel adjoining the Archbishop's Palace. Today, the museum houses a exceptional collection of furniture, paintings and sculptures, bringing together the works of the greatest artists since the Pre-Renaissance.
Le The museum itself was created in 1801. thanks to the passionate energy of the founder of the City's drawing school, Charles-Antoine Rougeot, and his son-in-law, Jean-Jacques RaverotThese events enabled the transformation of the historic Archbishop's Palace into a repository for artworks during the Revolution. This explains why the Museum's oldest collection consists of works seized in 1794 from the homes of émigrés, churches, and convents, particularly the great abbeys of Marmoutier, Bourgueil, and La Riche, as well as paintings and exceptional furniture from the now-vanished châteaux of Chanteloup and Richelieu. It is therefore a great privilege to be able to admire these collection pieces, orphaned from their original setting.
From its opening at the dawn of the 19th century, the museum benefited from the sending, by the future Louvre Museum, of thirty spectacular paintings, including a series from the Royal Academy of PaintingThe works of Nattier, Restout, Houasse, and Dumont le Romain were the first to adorn the walls of the Museum. It was also during this period that it received the magnificent Ex-vote by Rubens and the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance, namely the two panels by Andrea Mantegna, Christ in the Garden of Olives et The Resurrection, panels from the predella of the San Zeno altarpiece in Verona.
The Museum of Fine Arts houses priceless works by some of the greatest artists, from Blanchard to Restout, including Boulogne, Houël, La Fosse, Lamy, Le Sueur, and Parrocel. The 18th century is particularly well represented in this artistic living space, which boasts one of the most important collections of Enlightenment paintings in France. Visitors can thus contemplate the works of Lorenzo Veneziano, Rembrandt, Champaigne, Corneille, Coypel, Ingres, Largillière, Lemoyne, Perronneau, Hubert Robert, Van Loo or Vernet.
More recently the The 19th century also has its place within the museum., since everyone can admire neo-classical (Suvée, Taillasson), romantic (Vinchon), orientalist (Belly, Chassériau, Delacroix), realist (Bastien-Lepage, Cazin, Gervex) or impressionist (Monet, Degas) paintings.
A visit to the Fine Arts Museum allows you to traversing the centuries with history's greatest artistsThe Italian primitives are not forgotten, since the museum contains the richest collection of Italian Pre-Renaissance art after the Louvre Museum. Finally, the collection of 20th century works brings together the names of Geneviève Asse, Briggs, Calder, Davidson, Debré, Maurice Denis, Gaumont, Peinado, Seguin and even Zao Wou-Ki.
- Continue your exploration of the Loire Valley with the circuit The castles around Tours which includes the Museum of Fine Arts of Tours.
