Musée de Picardie

Leda and the swan by Jules Roulleau

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, 1863, Work, Musée de Picardie

Portrait of a Man, El Greco, circa 1600-1610

Selfportrait, Maurice Quentin de La Tour, circa 1751

The Musée de Picardie is the main museum of Amiens and Picardy, at 48, rue de la République. Its collections stretch from prehistory to the 19th century and form one of the largest regional museums in France.

Its building was purpose-built for a regional museum (one of France's first such buildings) between 1855 and 1867. The architects were Henri Parent and Arthur-Stanislas Diet. It was built thanks to militant action by the Société des Antiquaires de Picardie, keen to give the city somewhere to house the collections the society had gathered over decades.

Collections

Archaeology

Housed in the basement from

• ancient Greece
• ancient Egypt, with around 400 objects (of which 257 are on show), mainly derived from the collection of the painter Albert Maignan and from national collections placed here
• the archaeology of Picardy

Medieval

12th to 16th centuries, with the main pieces being the Puys d'Amiens, masterpieces of Gothic art from Amiens Cathedral.

Fine arts

French and foreign painters from 17th to 20th centuries, with artists such as:

• Rogier van der Weyden
• Alvise Vivarini
• El Greco
• Frans Hals
• Jacob Jordaens
• Jan van Goyen
• Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp
• Andrea Schiavone
• Jusepe de Ribera
• Luca Giordano
• Simon Vouet
• Philippe de Champaigne
• Hyacinthe Rigaud
• Jean Siméon Chardin
• François Boucher
• Jean Honoré Fragonard
• Hubert Robert
• Maurice Quentin de La Tour
• Giambattista Tiepolo
• Francesco Guardi
• Camille Corot
• Gustave Courbet
• Edouard Vuillard
• Pablo Picasso
• Francis Picabia
• Joan Miró
• Francis Bacon
• Alfred-Georges Regner, painter engraver

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes painted monumental frescoes on the museum's main staircase and first floor galleries^[1], including the two large symbolic frescoes Peace and War (1861) and Work and Rest (1863).^[2]

Musée de l'Hôtel de Berny

Located near Amiens Cathedral, the Hôtel de Berny is an annexe of the Musée de Picardie.

Notes and references

1. ^ Evene.fr - Toute la culture. "Musée de Picardie". http://www.evene.fr/culture/lieux/musee-picardie-amiens-36.php. 
2. ^ Source : Léon Riotor, Puvis de Chavannes, Librairie Larousse (1914)

Bibliography

• (French) Matthieu Pinette, Couleurs d'Italie, couleurs du Nord - Peintures étrangères des musées d'Amiens, édition Somogy, Paris, 2001.

External links

• The museum's site

Coordinates: 49°53′26″N 2°17′43″E / 49.8905°N 2.2953°E / 49.8905; 2.2953