Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Ernest Cognacq Museum is a municipal museum located in the hotel of Clerjotte, a 15th century mansion listed as a historical monument in 1929, in the heart of Saint Martin-de-Ré on the island of Re. It preserves historical, military, artistic and oral heritages of the island, with routes dedicated to the first settlements, the bagne, the fortifications Vauban, the marine, the ceramics and the fine arts. A contemporary wing, added in 2006, and French-style gardens built in 2007 complete the whole.

The museum originated in 1906 when Ernest Cognacq, founder of La Samaritaine department stores, bought the collections of the local scholar Théodore Phelippot to offer them to his native municipality. The museum opened in 1907 in the Hotel des Cadets-Gentilshommes, before being transferred in 1960 to the Hotel de Clerjotte after its restoration. Since then, an association of the museum's friends, created under the leadership of Gabriel Cognacq (nevew d'Ernest), has contributed to its outreach, including through acquisitions and restorations of works.

The collections, enriched by 19th and 20th century donations, have 14,169 properties listed in 2015, covering various disciplines: archaeology, fine arts, ethnography, prison history, marine and militaria. The museum offers a chronological tour of the island of Ré, the first settlements to date, as well as temporary exhibitions featuring contemporary artists or local themes, such as bagne, ceramics or regional painting.

The history of the museum is also linked to that of colonial bagnes, Saint Martin de Ré having served as a place of deposit for convicted prisoners in Guyana and New Caledonia. This theme, as well as that of the Vauban fortifications (classified as UNESCO World Heritage), occupies a central place in the museum rooms. Since the 1990s, a more structured acquisition policy has been put in place, with the support of the Association of Friends of the Museum and the Municipality.

The museum, labeled Musée de France, plays a key role in preserving and disseminating the heritage. He organizes temporary exhibitions, such as Painting the Bagne (2024) or ETIENNE-ARCABAS (2023), and participates in the development of local and international artists. Its architecture, combining a medieval building and a modern wing, reflects this duality between historical heritage and contemporary cultural dynamism.

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