Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Museum of Fine Arts in Caen was founded in 1801 by a consular decree, under the leadership of Jean-Antoine Chaptal, Minister of Interior. Caen, chosen for his academic and cultural prestige, had to build a gallery to accommodate the paintings confiscated during the Revolution. Originally planned in the former Church of St. Catherine of the Arts, the museum finally settles in the left wing of the former Seminary of the Eudists, where it officially opens in 1809. François-Pierre Fleuriau, the first curator, enriched the collections with major works, including paintings by Verona and Poussin.

In 1811, Henri Élouis succeeded Fleuriau and protected the collections of Prussian claims after 1815, hiding a Rubens under a table. The 19th century saw major legacies, such as that of Bernard Mancel in 1872, including 50,000 prints and paintings by Rogier van der Weyden. Despite a fire in 1905 destroying works, the museum remained in precarious premises until its total destruction during the 1944 bombings, where 540 paintings and thousands of objects were lost.

Reconstructed in the ducal castle from 1967, the museum reopened in 1970 with a acquisition policy focused on European schools. In 1994, a modern extension was added, with exhibition spaces, an auditorium and a library. Today, the museum offers 6,000 m2 of exhibitions, ranging from Renaissance to contemporary art, and preserves one of the richest collections in Europe, the Mancel fonds. It has also been in the heart of the castle's Sculptures Park since 2007.

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