2018 marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of opening the house of the painter Jacques Réattu to the public. To celebrate the event, the museum is implementing a special arrangement to present its collections, a display recalling its origins: a sublime painting gallery, freely associating the works of Jacques Réattu – the grisailles of the Temple of Reason, Prometheus, Alcibiades, etc. –with those by painters that he collected– Simon Vouet and Antoine Coypel – or that he inherited, like those by his uncle Antoine Raspal.
This display also pays tribute to Elisabeth Grange, the daughter of the painter, who enabled the city to open an all-inclusive museum of fine art for its citizens. An enlightened amateur of art and literature, the muse of several painters and of the poet Frédéric Mistral, she was a key figure in the artistic and social landscape of her city in the 19th century, a perfect example of the ‘Arles type’.
Returning to the roots of the spirit of the museum – a permanent cohabitation between traditional and contemporary art – the museum brings to the fore the most symbolic masterpieces in its collections. Several highlights inspire the itinerary: Themed rooms questioning the representation of women in art through the eyes of Jacques Réattu, Antoine Raspal, Ossip Zadkine, Lucien Clergue, Brassaï, etc.
A new space specifically devoted to graphic arts where the donation Picasso, 57 drawings, engravings, posters, etc. is presented all year round in rotation.
A remarkable reorganisation of the collection of contemporary art and photography with the theme of women artists, to rediscover sculpture by Germaine Richier, paintings by Baya and Germaine Pratsevall, commissioned work by Jacqueline Salmon and Corinne Mercadier, as well as photographic masterpieces by Dora Maar, Gisèle Freund, Lisette Model, Imogen Cunningham, Agnès Varda, Jocelyne Alloucherie, Katerina Jebb and many others.
