The Museum of Fine Arts Nîmes was established in 1821 and was first housed in the square House, one of the most important ancient buildings in the city. In 1907, the collections were transferred in a building created for this purpose, designed by architect Max Raphael Nimes. The building includes frames and windows in metal and glass, concrete floors and various ornaments (sculptures, stucco, mosaics) married and architectural innovations and will showcase the works exhibited.
The museum received an audacious renovation in 1987 designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, and now includes a central atrium surrounded by two levels of galleries.
The property has to date 3800 works from private collections, donations and acquisitions. The public now discovered at the lower gallery three rooms dedicated to Italian painters of the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries (Bassano, Lelio Orsi, Fontata, Andea della Robbia). On the upper floor, seven rooms are devoted to Flemish and Dutch paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth century and has signed works including Rubens, Fabritius, Coeke and Duck. The French painters of the seventeenth to the eighteenth century are also exposed to this level, as Troy, Subleyras, Sigalon, Delaroche.
Note also that the atrium houses paintings by Charles Notorious (XVIII) evoking the history of Mark Antony and Cleopatra and that a room is reserved for landscape painters of Provence (XIX and XX).
Finally, the public can admire in the museum a unique piece: the most beautiful Roman mosaic discovered in Nîmes representing the Marriage of Admetus.
The museum regularly hosts temporary exhibitions and offers throughout the year animations for children, conferences and workshops. Open daily except Mondays, 1 May and 1 November and 25 December 2 January. Price of guided visits: 3 and 5 euros. Guided tour possible or renting an audio guide. Information +33 4 66 76 71 82.
