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Key figures

Origin and history

The Museum of Fine Arts in Mulhouse was founded in 1864 on the initiative of Frédéric Engel-Dollfus, a rich collector and member of the Mulhouse Industrial Society (SIM). The latter, aware of the lack of a museum in a booming industrial city, decided to create an art collection thanks to donations from local industrialists. The first building, inaugurated in 1883, housed the museum on the first floor, but is now occupied by the Museum of Print on Fabrics.

In 1958, the museum became municipal, and its collections were transferred to the Steinbach villa, an 18th-century mansion built for the manufacturer of Jean Vetter Indians. This residence, acquired by Georges Steinbach in 1840, had several vocations (technological museum, business school) before permanently hosting the Museum of Fine Arts in 1964. The collections, enriched with donations, cover works from the Middle Ages to contemporary art, with a preference for 19th century academic painting.

The museum's collections reflect the bourgeois tastes of the Mulhousian industrialists, focusing on French and regional painting, including the works of Jean-Jacques Henner, a child of the country. Although impressionism is little represented, the museum has major pieces such as Pieter Brueghel's Skating Scene the Young (1613) or portraits signed Hyacinthe Rigaud. After its renovation between 1982 and 1985, the museum opened its doors for free in 1999, while continuing to enrich its holdings with contemporary works.

The Steinbach villa, classified as an example of 18th-century bourgeois architecture, now houses the permanent collections on the first floor, while the ground floor houses an artothèque to borrow prints. Temporary exhibitions are presented on the second floor. The museum remains a testament to the industrial and cultural history of Mulhouse, marked by its late attachment to France (1798) and its economic dynamism in the 19th century.

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