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Origin and history

The Magnin Museum was born from the passion of two collectors, Maurice Magnin (1861-1939) and his sister Jeanne (1855-1937), who gathered more than 2,000 works of art between 1881 and 1935. Master adviser at the Court of Accounts, Maurice, and amateur painter, Jeanne, have acquired works often unknown at public sales, covering varied artistic trends in France and abroad. Their collection, presented in their 17th century family mansion, the Lantin Hotel in Dijon, was left to the state in 1939. The testamentary provisions of Mauritius prohibit any loan of works and any further enrichment of the collection.

The Lantin hotel, built in 1663-1664 for the parliamentary Étienne Lantin, was acquired in 1829 by the grandfather of the Magnin, Jean Hugues Magnin-Philippon. Transformed in 1851 by the addition of a floor to the stables, it was then built by Maurice Magnin, who entrusted the renovation of the communes to architect Auguste Perret between 1930 and 1932. Perret y maria reinforced concrete and classical architecture, especially in the zenithal gallery. The museography, conceived as a amateur cabinet, reflects the spirit of a inhabited dwelling, according to the wishes of the Magnin.

The museum's collection is distinguished by its diversity: paintings from schools in the North (Flamands, Dutch), Italian (Renaissance in the 18th century) and French (17th in the 19th century), as well as drawings, sculptures and furniture. Northern schools include works by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Weenix, or Bartholomeus van der Helst, while the Italian section presents works by Giovanni Cariani, Carlo Dolci, or Giambattista Tiepolo. The French school, the most represented with 650 works, covers periods from the 17th century (Eustache Le Sueur, Laurent de La Hyre) to the 19th century (Jules Bastien-Lepage, Théodore Géricault).

The Magnin also brought together more than 600 drawings, including works by David Wilkie, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, or Eugène Delacroix, as well as sculptures such as Le Printemps and La Automne by Juste Le Court. Their collection reflects a marked eclecticism, with then forgotten artists like Anne-Louis Girodet or Charles Meynier. The furniture, integrated into the museum, includes rare pieces like a secretary stamped Bon Durand (1761). The museum, housed in a classified mansion, offers an immersion in the intimate and learned world of its founders.

The Magnin legacy is part of a tradition of donations that allowed the creation of museums in France, such as the Jacquemart-André museums in Paris or Bonnat-Helleu museums in Bayonne. Their choice to present the works in a domestic setting, without further modification, makes it a unique testimony of the artistic tastes of the cultivated bourgeoisie of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The museum, labeled "Musée de France", remains a preserved place, where art and history mingle in an exceptional architectural setting.

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