Treasures of the museums of the province : in Aix, of gods and men

in The Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries, Aix-en-Provence and in particular Mazarin quarter are covered in beautiful mansions, built with a stone ochre light. The Bibémus, place-says that, later, the abandoned quarry will be a recurring motif in the work of the old Cézanne.

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Many among the owners of these dwellings were members of the parliament of Provence. They had an intense need art in order to strengthen their social status and because they were quite grown. It is mainly the rich nobility of the robe, with its treasures, is the origin of the funds of the museum of fine arts, place Saint-Jean de Malte.

it now has 12,000 numbers in its inventory, and it bears the name of François-Marius Granet (1775 - 1849), painter and benefactor of the most generous. Since the Nineteenth and Twentieth were also shown to be profligate. Gifts and bequests of ensembles have regularly flocked, repairing up the largest complex of the city : that of not having had it for a long time no Cézanne show.

The most famous child in the country has made its entry to the musée Granet in 1984 with the deposit by the State of eight of his paintings, while the large deposits of the modern art collections of Philip Meyer (2000, collection given to the State to be deposited in Aix), and Jean Planque (2011) signed the final grant of the place to the aesthetic, modern and contemporary.

Currently on site, the museum is still closed, it is active in the optic of a re-opening June 2, and to wait, the director Bruno Ely proposes to do with all those who want a tour of the rooms in his company, via a half-hour of the show, this Monday, from 18 hours. This presentation, broadcast in partnership with Facebook France, Le Figaro, connaissance des Arts, and the network CLICK.France digital innovation in the cultural places, will then be accessible.

Thanks to it we will or will return in the floors of the permanent collections of paintings and sculptures, in the spaces of the temporary exhibitions and it will also be going under the arches of the chapel of the white Penitents, which, since 2013, is home to an annex to the Twentieth, including works from the collection Planque, including paintings by Picasso, Monet and Jean Dubuffet.

But let's take the visit in its chronological order. In the halls of archaeology we will stop in front of some sculptures, a celto-ligurian culture characteristics of the celtic Gaul from the Mediterranean to the eve of the romanization and the founding of Aquae Sextiae (Aix-en-Provence), at the end of the Second century before our era.

A leap in time and here we are in front of the paintings of French, nordic and Italian from the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth century. Hard not to have the head spinning in the face of abundance. Here are examples of the school of Fontainebleau, where some scenes of peasant of The Dwarf, of the portraits of Rigaud, which compete with the compositions of Guercino in Italy, as well as, on the side of the great masters of the nordic, with Robert Campin and Rubens. Rembrandt finally. Here it is, so strong and so fragile, so human, in one of his stunning self-portraits.

few more steps and large volumes open, dedicated to the Xixth century, period extremely well represented here. Its climax is the famous Jupiter of Ingres. Seated on the heavenly throne the chief of the gods gets tickled on the chin by a goddess Thetis, naked as undulating, the symbol of all the temptations to sensual, all the fun...

Neither this theme grandiose nor this monumental size must not monopolize your attention completely. Because around, you keep it or look at its core the magnificent portrait of a young boy directed by David, or the space entirely devoted to the landscapes of Granet. The selection shown here corresponds essentially to its roman period. These augustus hills, these ancient ruins, these loafers that can be seen as the first tourists, modern : all this offers the opportunity to meditate on the decline and oblivion in which the more assured of civilisations can sometimes sink...

Not far away, the School of provence is similarly present in strength, and we teach you more than a few artists typical such The Engalière or Loubon.

To finish off Bruno Ely has thought of a surprise. Give to see the cabinet of graphic arts, a place which is inaccessible to visitors. It is here, in this space conservation is fine-tuning the next two exhibits : "Pharaoh, Osiris and the mummy" - this superb collection of treasures egyptian house finally restored and supplemented with loans from the Louvre was to be opened originally on April 17 - and a return on the work of François-Marius Granet, the true master of the house.

Monday, may 25, from 18h on the page Facebook of the museum (the www.facebook.com/MuseeGranet) as well as on his account Instagram.

SujetsAix-in-ProvenceMuséeTrésors museums provinceAucun comment

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