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Origin and history

The Museum of Fine Arts in Strasbourg finds its origins in a first municipal painting museum, founded in 1801 by the decree Chaptal. Installed at the Aubette, it was completely destroyed on 24 August 1870 during the Franco-Prussian war, destroying a collection of 43 paintings lent by the Louvre, including works by Perugin, Verona and Jordaens. Losses included Italian, Flemish and French paintings from royal collections or local acquisitions.

The reconstruction of the collections began in 1889 under the leadership of Wilhelm von Bode, director of the Imperial Museums in Berlin. The latter succeeded in replacing most of the lost works, acquiring paintings by Italian masters such as Giotto, Raphaël or Botticelli, while committing some errors of attribution (Dosso Dossi, C rêtre). After 1918, his successor Hans Haug continued this effort, consolidating a fund covering from the 14th to the 19th century, with Italian, Flemish, Dutch, French and Spanish schools.

The museum was installed in 1899 on the first floor of Rohan Palace, a classical building built between 1739 and 1742 for the Cardinal of Rohan-Soubise. The collections suffered further damage during the 1944 bombings (partial destruction of the Civil Guard of Saint-Adrien de Cornelis Engelsz) and a fire in 1947, which destroyed works by Guardi, Cranach or Pollaiuolo. However, insurance benefits permitted major acquisitions, supplemented by private donations (Kaufmann, Eisenbeth, Oppenheimer).

Today, the museum presents a coherent panorama of European painting, from primitive Italians (Giotto, Botticelli) to Baroque masters (Rubens, Ribera) and neoclassical (Chardin, Delacroix). Alsatian painting prior to 1681 was exhibited in the Museum of the Work of Notre-Dame, while later periods, including artists such as Loutherbourg or Schall, remained at the Museum of Fine Arts. The reserves, open to the public on a Saturday per month, complement this offer.

The Rohan Palace itself, a masterpiece by Robert de Cotte, illustrates the 18th century French classical architecture. Organized between courtyard and garden according to the Parisian model, it also houses the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Decorative Arts. The Musée des Beaux-Arts is distinguished by flagship works such as La Belle Strasbourgeoise de Largillierre or Samson and Dalila du Guerchin, showing its cultural influence in Alsace and beyond.

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