Calvet Museum

The Calvet Museum (Musée Calvet) is the principal museum of Avignon, in southeastern France. Founded in 1811 through the bequest of collector and physician Esprit Calvet, it is administered by the Fondation Calvet. Since the 1980s its holdings have been divided between two sites: the fine arts collection occupies an 18th-century hôtel particulier, while the Lapidary Museum is housed in the former chapel of the city's Jesuit college. The museum is recognized as a "classical French museum" ("klassisches französisches Museum") due to the richness and significance of its collections, which span archaeology, fine arts, decorative arts, and ethnography from Asia, Oceania, and Africa.

The museum owes its existence to Esprit Calvet (1728-1810), a physician, physiocrat, and major collector who devoted his life to medicine and the arts. In 1810 his will left to his native Avignon a rich library, natural history collection, and cabinet of antiquities, together with endowment funds to maintain them as an independent institution. An imperial decree issued by Napoleon I on 9 April 1811 from the Tuileries Palace authorized the mayor of Avignon to accept this universal legacy on behalf of the city. The museum was named in Calvet's honor and originally housed his collections. The city acquired the present building on 3 March 1833 to serve as the museum's permanent home. In 1946 the museum was further enriched by the foundation of collector Émile Joseph-Rignault, which added 19th- and 20th-century works. Since the 1980s the institution has been split between two buildings. The directorial succession has included Pierre-Bertrand Dejean (1814-1823), Joseph-Bénézet-Xavier Guérin (1823-1838), Augustin Deloye (1852-1890), Joseph Girard (1906-1949), Georges De Loye (1949-1984), Sylvain Boyer (2005-2015), and since 2018 Odile Cavalier, who had previously held the post from 1992 to 1994.

The Calvet Museum's collections are exceptionally wide-ranging. The fine arts holdings include paintings, drawings, and sculptures from the 15th through the 20th centuries. The decorative arts are represented by goldwork, faience, porcelain, tapestries, and ironwork. The museum also maintains significant archaeological collections and ethnographic material from Asia, Oceania, and Africa.

The painting collection is particularly strong in French art from the 16th to the 20th centuries, with notable groups of works from the 18th and 19th centuries. The sculpture collection includes works by Francesco Laurana, Giambologna, James Pradier (Cassandre mourante), and Camille Claudel, as well as a group of Italian and Nordic bronzes from the 16th and 17th centuries and the fifteen Tondi du Rosaire (Spain, early 17th century). The 19th- and early 20th-century holdings were augmented by the Joseph-Rignault bequest of 1946.

Among the museum's signature paintings are Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Joseph Bara, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun's Portrait of Giuseppina Grassini, and Théodore Chassériau's Sleeping Bather. The 19th-century collection features Alfred Sisley's The Church at Moret, Armand Guillaumin's The Pointe de la Baumette, and Paul Huet's views of Avignon and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist holdings include works by Camille Corot, Édouard Manet (Still Life with Spanish Hat), Pierre Bonnard (Winter Day), and Chaïm Soutine (The Idiot, Bad Luck, The Stripe, View of a Village).

The 18th-century French school is represented by Joseph Vernet (nine marine and landscape paintings including Entry into a Seaport in Calm Weather and The Italian Gondola), Hubert Robert (Spring, The Fontaine de Vaucluse, and Roman views), and Nicolas de Largillierre. Earlier French painting includes Simon de Châlons's religious works and Nicolas Mignard's Saint Michel Defeating the Rebel Angels and Self-Portrait. The archaeological collections in the Lapidary Museum feature the Stele of Lauris-Puyvert and Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities, including stelae, bronze statuettes, and objects related to daily life and funerary belief.

The fine arts museum occupies the Hôtel de Villeneuve-Martignan, an 18th-century hôtel particulier classified as a monument historique on 1 October 1963. The site was originally occupied by the Livrée de Cambrai, named after its last resident, Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly, Bishop of Cambrai. In 1719 it was sold to François-René de Villeneuve, Marquis d'Arzeliers and Lord of Martignan in the Principality of Orange.

In 1734 his son Jacques-Ignace de Villeneuve commissioned Thomas Lainée to extend the building, but in 1741 he demolished the entire structure and commissioned Jean-Baptiste Franque to design a new one. Construction was completed in 1749, though the cost ruined the family. After the Revolution the building was seized as national property; it was purchased in 1802 by merchant Joseph-Véran Deleutre for 33,000 francs, who rented it to the city for Calvet's collections. The municipality acquired it outright in 1833.

Since the 1980s the Lapidary Museum has been located in the former chapel of the Jesuit college on rue de la République.

The Calvet Museum is located in Avignon, in the Vaucluse department of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. The fine arts collection is housed at the Hôtel de Villeneuve-Martignan in the city center, while the Lapidary Museum is situated on rue de la République in the former Jesuit chapel. The museum is one of several institutions administered by the Fondation Calvet, which also supports the city's library, the Petit Palais, the natural history museum, and other Avignon museums. The foundation serves as the financial guarantor of the museum's operations. The museum maintains a website at http://www.musee-calvet.org/beaux-arts-archeologie/fr/home.