Baron Gérard Museum
The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire Baron Gérard is a museum in Bayeux in the French department of Calvados . It is located in the Palais épiscopal de Bayeux, the former palace of the Bishops of Bayeux. The museum's collections range from archaeological finds from the Neolithic Age, through an extensive inventory of handicrafts, to paintings, mostly by French artists.
history
The museum was founded in the course of the French Revolution in 1793 and was initially called the Musée de Bayeux . Since 1901 it has been located in the oldest part of the Palais épiscopal de Bayeux, built between the 12th and 18th centuries, in the immediate vicinity of the Bayeux Cathedral . The museum was given its current name in 1957 in memory of Henri-Alexandre Gérard (1817–1903). He was a member of the National Assembly for the Calvados department and a nephew of the painter François Gérard . In 1899 he donated an important collection of 19th century French painting to the museum. From 2001 to 2012 extensive renovations and alterations took place in the museum and it had to be closed for several years. During this time, parts of the collection were on display in the Hôtel du Doyen, the former palace of the dean of the cathedral chapter. The reopening of the museum in the Palais épiscopal de Bayeux is scheduled for the end of March 2013.
Collections
The museum's archaeological collections show objects from the Bayeux region from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age . The exhibits include tools, weapons, and jewelry. There are also objects from the 1st century AD, when the Roman settlement Augustodurum was located in the area of today's city. In the section for medieval art there are grave goods and sculptures.
The Musée Baron Gérard houses paintings from the Renaissance to the 20th century. These include works by old Flemish masters such as Gillis Coignet ( Vanitas ) and Philippe de Champaigne , Baroque paintings by Sébastien Bourdon and Rococo by François Boucher . The inventory of works by French artists of the 19th century is particularly extensive. These range from the classicism of Jacques-Louis David or François Gérard to the impressionists such as Gustave Caillebotte ( portraits à la campagne ) or symbolists such as Antoine-Jean Gros ( Sapho à Leucate ). There are also pictures by Camille Corot , Eugène Boudin , Octave Tassaert ( Nativité ), Albert de Balleroy ( Combat de chevaux ) and artists from the Bayeux region such as Alfred Guillard ( La Reine Mathilde travaillant à la Telle du Conquest ) and Constant Le Nourichel ( Vue de Port-en-Bessin ).
The arts and crafts department is particularly dedicated to two products made in Bayeux. On the one hand, in the Porcelaine de Bayeux area you can see decorative objects and crockery from the porcelain manufacturer located in the city from 1812 to 1951, and on the other hand, the place was known for several centuries for the manufacture of lace fabrics , Dentelle de Bayeux , of which the museum has one rich Endures. In addition, the museum shows valuable furniture from the 16th to 18th centuries and historical apothecary jars from the Hôtel-Dieu .
literature
- Antoine Verney: Baron Gérard Bayeux Museum . German edition, Gaud, Moisenay 1994, ISBN 978-2-84080-030-9 .
- Antoine Verney: Le Musée Baron Gérard, ou l'histoire d'une collection . Association Art de Basse-Normandie, Caen 2000.
Web links
- Museum website (French)
- Description of the Musée Baron Gérard at the Musées de Basse-Normandie (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on museum history at the Musées de Basse-Normandie, accessed on February 10, 2013 ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 49 ° 16 ′ 33.6 ″ N , 0 ° 42 ′ 10.1 ″ W.