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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Auberge des Peintres, also known as the Legangneux Hotel, is a 19th-century building located in Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei, in the Orne department in Normandy. This building, which has been listed as a historic monument since 2002, owes its reputation to its central role in local artistic history. At the end of the 19th century, the commune attracted painters like Mary Renard and Paul Sain, forming a school of painting known as the Saint-Céneri school. The inn still preserves today 28 murals, 14 of them by Mary Renard, testifying to this creative effervescence.

The facades, roofs, and some rooms (including one on the ground floor and two rooms on the first floor) are protected for their wall paintings. The latter, executed directly on the walls, illustrate local landscapes or scenes, such as Saint Céneri and Flavard crossing the Sarthe by René Thurin. Artists, often in exchange for their accommodation, offered paintings as a payment, enriching the inn's heritage. Among the identifiable signatures are those of Henri Harpignies (1891), Bénédict Masson (1882), or Louis-Henri Foreau, covering a period from 1882 to 1941.

The Auberge des Peintres is one of the two major artistic sites of Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei, with the former Moisy Inn. Its inscription in 2002 preserved this historic place, where 19th century architecture and pictorial heritage combine. The works, although partially accessible (some rooms serving as storage rooms), remain a unique testimony of the exchanges between artists and local life at that time. The road to Saint-Pierre-des-Nids, where the monument is located, was then a popular passage of painters seeking inspiration in this preserved Norman setting.

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