the museum in english
With its collections of ancient, modern and contemporary art, the Musée de Grenoble offers you a chance to traverse the history of western painting from the 13th to the 20th centuries. Included are major masterpieces of classical Flemish, Dutch, Italian and Spanish painting; one of 20th century Europe’s richest collections; and all the great post-1945 contemporary art trends, right up to the most recent artworks of the 2000s.
Pratical information
Access
Musée de Grenoble
5, place de Lavalette
38010 Grenoble cedex 1
Telephone : 04 76 63 44 44
Opening hours
The museum is open daily, except Tuesday, from 10 am to 6.30 pm.
Closed on January 1st, May 1st, December 25th
Tickets prices
(may be subject to modification in certain circumstances)
Book online (only for full fee)
Full fee : 8€
Reduced fee* : 5€
Free admission** : under 26s, and the first sunday of every month
Audioguide : 2€
Season ticket : 18€
(Fees applied upon presentation of documents updated within the past three months)
*Reduced fee : Large families (SNCF cards or family record book), Savatou Isère, members of the Comité Social de la Ville de Grenoble, Societies of Friends of Museums, Grenoble City pass, Associations and partners under agreement, SEMITAG subscribers (on presentation of a valid subscription receipt).
**Free admission : Young people under 26, jobseekers, recipients of minimum social benefits (RSA, minimum old age pension, etc.), disabled persons and 1 accompanying person, veterans, asylum seekers, holders of : ICOM / AICA / Press / COMEX cards, Artists on presentation of the Maison des Artistes card (Paris or Regions), Partners authorised by agreement with the City of Grenoble (list at the museum reception), Teachers preparing a self-guided tour (on presentation of the group visit confirmation).
Fees applied upon presentation of documents updated within the past three months
> downloading pricing information (in french)
Guided tours
Groups (20 pers) : 150€ for a guided visit
Guided tours can be organized in French, English and Italian.
Private events
For more information about hosting events at the Museum, speak with Christelle Giroud
christelle.giroud@grenoble.fr
At the museum
The library
Open from Monday to Friday (except Tuesday) from 2-6 pm
The bookshop-boutique
Open every day except Tuesday from10.30 am to1 pm and from 2-6.30 pm
Les Amis du musée de Grenoble/Friends of the Musée de Grenoble
All year round, on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2.30-6 pm, except public holidays.
Telephone : 04 76 63 44 29. Fax : 04 76 63 44 56
Musée en musique/Music at the Museum
All year round, on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm and from 2-6.30 pm.
Telephone : 04 76 87 77 31. Fax : 04 76 87 77 61.
Le “5” Café-Restaurant
The Le “5” café-restaurant is open daily, except Tuesday. Access to it is separate from the museum.
Telephone : 04 76 63 22 12
The Collections
Presented in chronological order, the collections, totalling some 800 painted or sculpted works, are arranged into two distinct large sections. The first is devoted to the great painting schools of the 13th to 19th centuries and to 17th century Europe in particular, with artists such as Rubens, Georges de La Tour, Philippe de Champaigne, La Hyre and Zurbarán, who give the antique art collection its rich splendor.
The 19th century is illustrated by a set of works ranging from Neo-classicism to Impressionism, graced by such great names as Delacroix, Pradier, Fantin-Latour, Monet and Gauguin. The second section presents 20th century art, with key works by the great names in modern art, including Matisse, Picasso, Léger and Ernst, through to the creators of the contemporary period with works by Soulages, Warhol, Nauman, Boltanski and Schütte who, along with many others, have contributed to the museum’s reputation.
This collection is complemented by an extensive collection of drawings, including a number of sheets of great quality. Two of the museum’s rooms are taken up by Egyptian antiquities and Greek and Roman archeology.
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L'Annonciation
Médium :
Auteur : Francisco de ZURBARAN
Date : 1638 - 1639
Dimension : 266 x 184,5 cm
Crédit : Ville de Grenoble / Musée de Grenoble-J.L. LacroixDomaine public
Acquisition : Don de Léon de Beylié en 1901
Localisation : SA08 - Salle 08Zurburàn, together with Velazquez and Murillo, was the greatest Spanish painter of the Golden Age. This picture, along with the three others, comes from the large altarpiece in the Charterhouse at Jerez de la Frontera, which was taken apart in 1837. The four canvases, which were acquired by General de Beylié in 1904, were immediately offered to the museum.
This triumphal Annunciation associates the requirement that the work be readable with the instructions of the exegetes of the Counter-Reformation. The distribution to left and right of the Virgin and the Angel is relayed by the vertical lines of the columns linking heaven and earth. This arrangement lends the composition a powerfully frontal aspect. The alternating dark and light areas, and the improbable inclusion of the landscape in the background give the décor a marked theatrical look.
Zurburàn rejected the Mannerist decorative excess. He was careful to isolate the objects, which thus take on an unusual monumental presence. The symbolic nature of the still lifes—lilies, white linen, and book—goes hand in hand with a meditative aura emphasized by the solemn, contemplative attitude of the figures. These latter, who are idealized without mawkishness, face the onlooker and bear witness to the fulfillment of the divine will. The colour, modulated by the light, lends a forceful relief to the elements in the lower register. The treatment of the sky and the angels is in a mellowed, more diffuse style. This work, probably the last to be made for the altarpiece, shows Zurburàn’s receptiveness to Italian-inspired influences. -
Saint Grégoire pape, entouré de saints et de saintes, vénérant l'image miraculeuse de la Vierge à l'Enfant, dite de Santa Maria in Vallicella
Médium :
Auteur : Pietrus Paulus RUBENS
Date : 1606 - 1607
Dimension : 477 x 288 cm
Crédit : Ville de Grenoble / Musée de Grenoble-J.L. LacroixDomaine public
Acquisition : Dépôt de l'Etat en 1811
Localisation : SA02 - Salle 02This major work from the Flemish collection is dazzling evidence of Rubens’s first period, prior to his return from Italy in late 1608. Commissioned in 1606 by the Oratorian fathers for the Chiesa Nuova di Sante-Maria-in-Valicella in Rome, St. Gregory was refused by these latter and finally ended up, until the 18th century, in the artist’s funerary chapel in Antwerp. St. Gregory, pope from 590 to 604, is at the centre of the composition, accompanied by the dove of the Holy Ghost. On the right, St. Domitilla appears in luxurious clothes, before St. Achilleus and St. Nereus. On the left, St. Maurus presented as a Roman soldier stands beside St. Papianus leaning on a stick. An image of the Virgin with Child giving its blessing, surrounded by cherubs and supported by a monumental arch, rounds off the scene, which perfectly illustrates the spirit of the triumphant Counter-Reformation.
The composition is hallmarked by a succession of diagonals leading to the portrait of the Virgin, a picture within a picture. The amazing refinement of St. Gregory’s apparel calls to mind the painter’s Flemish origins, Italian, and in particular Venetian, influences are nevertheless predominant. Baroque components harbinger the Rubens to come, however: the way the characters are presented, the swirling movement of the robes, and the interplay of gazes.
Research that has been undertaken over the past few years about the complex genesis of this painting will result in a generously illustrated book, to be accompanied by an audiovisual extra recounting the complete history of this masterpiece. -
Saint Jérôme pénitent
Dit aussi Saint Jérôme à l'auréoleMédium :
Auteur : Georges de LA TOUR
Date : vers 1628 - 1630
Dimension : 157 x 100 cm
Crédit : Ville de Grenoble / Musée de Grenoble-J.L. LacroixDomaine public
Acquisition : Saisie révolutionnaire en 1799, entré au musée en 1800 (provient de l'abbaye de Saint-Antoine-en-Viennois).
Localisation : SA07 - Salle 07Renowned in his day and then totally forgotten about, thanks to research and exhibitions, Georges de La Tour now has a prominent place in French 17th century painting. His genre scenes and religious pictures are imbued with an entirely re-appropriated Caravaggio-like inspiration.
This St. Jerome, which comes from the abbey church of Saint-Antoine en Viennois, is a noteworthy masterpiece in the collection. The monumental figure of the injured saint, lost in meditation, seems to bow to the format of the canvas, contained as it is in a space that is also too cramped. On a bare and sombre background, the silhouette of the old man stands out, offering us his worn flesh and the frailty of his human condition. The construction of the body using large diagonals heightens the architectural and monumental character of the figure, which is underscored by the lateral lighting. The monochrome aspect of the décor highlights the beige-ochre hue of the skin and the restrained red of the drapery. The fine, thin paint of the whole piece becomes thicker with very virtuoso brush strokes in the hair of the beard and the saint’s hair. The open Bible, which Jerome was one of the first to translate, the blood-flecked cord of penitence, the skull in the still lifes and the firmly clutched crucifix are all elements which bolster the high spirituality of the scene. As with most of his works which were readily repeated in several versions, another less austere St. Jerome is held in the National Museum in Stockholm.Ressources
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Nature morte dite "de fiançailles"
Médium :
Auteur : Henri FANTIN-LATOUR
Date : 1869
Dimension : 32,8 x 30,4 cm
Crédit : Ville de Grenoble / Musée de Grenoble-J.L. LacroixDomaine public
Acquisition : Legs de Victoria Fantin-Latour née Victoria Dubourg en 1921, entré au musée en 1926
Localisation : SA22 - Salle 22This small masterpiece of balance and harmony was the engagement gift offered by the artist to his wife to be, Victoria Dubourg. This room also has a portrait of her, painted by Fantin in 1877.
Fantin-Latour produced more than 800 pictures of flowers between 1864 and 1896. He would prepare his palette the day before, and pick his flowers that same morning, before setting to work. He lit the bouquets with a filtered light and behind them arranged a neutral-coloured basket, so as to reduce the space depth-wise. The décor was often nothing more than a simple table.
The cherries and the small bowl of strawberries, the camellia and the glass of wine are all organized around the bunch of spring flowers set at the centre of the composition. The discreet interplay of proportions and the subtle balance of the colours, arrayed on either side of the vase, create a gentle, peaceful atmosphere. The creamy whites and purplish blues contrast with the differing reds, ranging from the opaque purple of the wine to the pale pink of the hyacinths.
In 1863, Fantin-Latour took part in the famous “Salon des refuses”. He was close to the Impressionists, but never adopted their technique: he did not enjoy painting outside. His light touch and the blurred aspect of certain outlines nevertheless call to mind that freedom dear to outdoor painters.
Born in Grenoble in 1836, the artist left the city at the age of five. After his death, his widow made an important bequest, including this work and one or two others, which are on view in this show. -
Sicile
Médium :
Auteur : Nicolas de STAËL
Date : 1954
Dimension : 114 x 146 cm
Crédit : VILLE DE GRENOBLE / MUSÉE DE GRENOBLE-J.L. LACROIX© Adagp, Paris
Acquisition : Achat à Françoise de Staël avec la participation du FRAM en 1982
Localisation : SA37 - Salle 37Nicolas de Staël, a painter of Russian origin, settled in Paris in 1938. In the early 1940s, he discovered abstraction among artists like Magnelli and Delaunay. His style, consisting of surfaces covered with dazzling colours crushed with a knife or spatula, asserted the power of the stroke. Influenced by the outstanding quality of light in the south of France and Sicily, where he went in 1953, the effects of partial transparency attained by lightening the paint created in his painting a vibrancy and a vitality hitherto never achieved. Earth, sea, sky and architecture were all conveyed through large swathes of colour of varying thickness.
The lower half of the canvas has warm shades of colour applied in thick layers. Standing out against this sand and these ochre lands, we find red, pink and mauve surfaces, and two white squares with irregular outlines. The upper half contains just the green of the sky, whose transparency means that the canvas can be made out beneath. All the lines of the landscape converge towards the central red area, key to the composition. The impasto effects, inconspicuous here, emphatic there, enable the colour to act with a maximum degree of intensity. The juxtaposition of the coloured planes gives visibility to an unpainted edge which calls to mind the technique of torn paper and collage practiced by the artist. By expressing his vision of a natural site through brilliant colours, Nicolas de Staël, the most famous Ecole de Paris painter, turned the landscape into a new genre in modern painting. -
Le Songe d'une nuit d'été
Médium :
Auteur : Marc CHAGALL
Date : 1939
Dimension : 116,5 x 89 cm
Crédit : VILLE DE GRENOBLE / MUSÉE DE GRENOBLE-J.L. LACROIX© Adagp, Paris
Acquisition : Don de l'artiste en 1951
Localisation : SA34 - Salle 34For a very long time, Marc Chagall would remain attached to his country of origin, Russia, and even if he spent the bulk of his life in France, first in Paris and then in Vence, in the south, he would return ‘home’ and carry out official functions between 1914 and 1922. Among the bodies of work of the Ecole de Paris artists, Chagall’s art remains imbued with a very personal philosophy and poetic force. The observation of day-to-day reality through the prism of Fauve and Cubist influences combined is conveyed by a “total lyrical explosion”, to borrow Andre Breton’s expression.
Chagall evolves from his inner reality towards a world encompassing figures which sidestep any verisimilitude, as for example in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Painted during the artist’s Parisian period, the theme of this picture is William Shakespeare’s comedy, which the painter situated in a dream-like forest inhabited by sylphs and lovers. The bewitched queen of the fairies, Titania, falls for a donkey-headed weaver, Bottom. The woman clad in a white wedding gown and a veil recurs in almost identical form in several pictures from that period, sometimes with the same blue fan. Winged beings and violinists are also often depicted.
Resorting to the fabulous reconciles the image of reality with fable. The naivety of the perspective-less composition combines with the contrast of juxtaposed touches of colour to create a “magical” pictorial space. -
La Fenêtre
Médium :
Auteur : Robert DELAUNAY
Date : 1912
Dimension : 45,8 x 37,5 cm
Crédit : VILLE DE GRENOBLE / MUSÉE DE GRENOBLE-J.L. LACROIXDomaine public
Acquisition : Achat à J. Mathellot en 1948
Localisation : SA28 - Salle 28For a very long time, Marc Chagall would remain attached to his country of origin, Russia, and even if he spent the bulk of his life in France, first in Paris and then in Vence, in the south, he would return ‘home’ and carry out official functions between 1914 and 1922. Among the bodies of work of the Ecole de Paris artists, Chagall’s art remains imbued with a very personal philosophy and poetic force. The observation of day-to-day reality through the prism of Fauve and Cubist influences combined is conveyed by a “total lyrical explosion”, to borrow Andre Breton’s expression.
Chagall evolves from his inner reality towards a world encompassing figures which sidestep any verisimilitude, as for example in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Painted during the artist’s Parisian period, the theme of this picture is William Shakespeare’s comedy, which the painter situated in a dream-like forest inhabited by sylphs and lovers. The bewitched queen of the fairies, Titania, falls for a donkey-headed weaver, Bottom. The woman clad in a white wedding gown and a veil recurs in almost identical form in several pictures from that period, sometimes with the same blue fan. Winged beings and violinists are also often depicted.
Resorting to the fabulous reconciles the image of reality with fable. The naivety of the perspective-less composition combines with the contrast of juxtaposed touches of colour to create a “magical” pictorial space. -
Femme lisant
Médium :
Auteur : Pablo PICASSO
Date : 1920
Dimension : 100 x 81,2 cm
Crédit : VILLE DE GRENOBLE / MUSÉE DE GRENOBLE-J.L. LACROIX© Succession Picasso
Acquisition : Don de l'artiste en 1921In 1917, Picasso stayed in Rome to produce the sets for Diaghilev’s ballet Parade. While there he met Olga Kokhlova, a dancer with the Ballets Russes, and rediscovered antique statuary, Etruscan art and early Renaissance painting. As a result the work produced in those years saw the appearance of monumental, gigantic, old-fashioned human forms.
Woman Reading, where the model was Olga, whom Picasso married in 1918, presents a hieratic figure in which classicism and Cubism are juxtaposed with virtuosity. The swollen, pink flesh of the face and hands, plus the position of the finger placed on the temple remind us of Picasso’s interest in the characteristic drawing and deformation of the art of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, in particular the Portrait of Madame Moitessier painted by this latter in 1856. The nose and the arch of the eyebrows evoke the regularity of faces in antique statues. The bust and the clothing with its flattened folds, and the monochrome palette of greys and browns, for their part, make reference to the period of analytical deconstruction in Cubism (1910-1912). The style of the hair, with long, wavy locks, lends a note of freedom and refers to the technique of carving. The impressive, grey-clad figure barely stands out against the more neutral grey ground, in matching tones which strengthen the flesh tints. The atmosphere of serenity released by this scene is due as much to the restricted choice of colours as to the sculptural effect of the deeply concentrating figure.