Musee des Beaux-Arts

On Monday, August 9th, we wandered around Lyon and ended up at the Musee Des Beaux-Arts. The building itself is very interesting – it’s the 17th century Palais St-Pierre, a former Benedictine convent for the daughters of nobility. (There were only 32 left when they were kicked out due to the Revolution.) When this building was being constructed and later renovated, they found evidence of an even older (Roman) structure.  As you can see, the setting is very lovely and tranquil; you’d never know you are in the middle of Lyon.

The museum contains an amazing range and amount of art. (We were surprised to find that we had spent 3 hours there when we sat down in the museum café in the courtyard for a glass of wine.) Inside we started with the Greeks and Romans (including the last words of Marcus Aurelius) and then moved on rooms devoted to ancient Egypt (artifacts dating back to 1900 BC). From there we went into rooms with much more recent art. There were LOTS of Rodin among other sculptures. And, as we wandered through the rooms and up and down the expansive stairways, we saw paintings dating from about 1320 on to recent times. Here are some of the artists whose works we saw (in no particular order): Raphael, Delacroix, Rembrandt, Reubens (Adoration of the Magi !), Fra Angelico, El Greco, Manet, Sisley, Pissarro, Corot, Rousseau, Renoir, Cezanne, Gaugin, Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Picasso, Modigliani, Chagall, Miro, Dufy, Max Ernst, Mark Toby (thought the Seattle area folks might be interested), and many, many more. [Many paintings were given to the museum by Mme Jacqueline Delubac, an actress, comedienne, and great beauty as well as an art patron. But, that’s another story.]