Fernand Léger National Museum

In 1955, Fernand Léger purchased a property called Mas Saint-André on the outskirts of Biot, intending to install polychrome ceramic sculptures in its garden, but he died on 17 August 1955 before realising this plan. After his death, his widow Nadia Léger and his assistant and friend Georges Bauquier decided to build a museum on the site to present Léger's artistic legacy to the public. They selected works from Léger's studio in Gif-sur-Yvette, including unfinished pieces, works in progress, and masterpieces he had kept. The architect Andreï Svetchine was commissioned after an earlier design by Paul Nelson was rejected; construction began in 1957. The museum opened on 13 May 1960, inaugurated by Gaëtan Picon, director general of Arts and Letters. In 1967, Nadia Léger and Georges Bauquier donated the museum building, its grounds, and 348 works to the French state. The new national museum was officially inaugurated on 4 February 1969 by André Malraux, then Minister of Cultural Affairs. Nadia Léger died in 1982; Bauquier retired from the directorship in 1993 at the age of 83. The building was expanded between 1987 and 1990, doubling its exhibition space, with Bernard Schoebel as architect for the north wing. A major interior renovation was carried out from 2004 to 2008 under architect Marc Barani, during which the museum was closed to the public. New installations were inaugurated in 2008 to improve visitor experience and presentation of the works.

The museum holds the world's largest collection of works by Fernand Léger, encompassing paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculptures, stained glass, and tapestries. These works span all phases of his career, from rare early neo-Impressionist attempts through the development of his characteristic Cubism to his return to figuration in the 1940s and his position as a precursor of Pop Art. Since 1994, the collection has been further enriched through acquisitions of drawings and deposits from the Musée national d'art moderne in Paris. The museum maintains both permanent and temporary exhibition programmes; alongside focused exhibitions of Léger's work, it also hosts temporary shows of other modern artists.

The collection includes numerous masterpieces from across Léger's career. Significant paintings include Le 14 Juillet (1914), Le Déjeuner (1920), Le Grand Remorqueur (1923), Composition à la feuille (1927), La Joconde aux clés (1930), La Baigneuse (1932), Adam et Ève (1934), Les Loisirs sur fond rouge (1949), Les Constructeurs, état définitif (1950), Le Campeur (1954), and La Grande Parade sur fond rouge (1954).

The museum building, designed by Andreï Svetchine, is distinguished by its monumental exterior mosaics, which reflect Léger's lifelong interest in synthesising art and architecture. The south wing features a 400 m² mosaic executed by Heidi and Lino Melano, based on Léger's 1954 preparatory studies for an un realised cycling stadium in Hanover; it depicts a multiplicity of sports motifs. The west façade carries a 340 m² mosaic by Heidi Melano, based on Léger's sketches for the 1951 Milan Triennale at the Palazzo dell'Arte, with large windows using the dalle de verre technique thick, glued glass plates set in reinforced concrete that Léger had previously employed at the Catholic church in Courfaivre. The east façade bears three mosaics by Heidi Melano: the central panel, Les oiseaux sur fond jaune, derives from motifs in the last painting Léger worked on, while the flanking panels draw on studies for murals in the United Nations General Assembly meeting room. The Mediterranean garden was designed by Henri Fisch to ensure optimal visibility of the south- and west-wing mosaics from various vantage points. Two sculptures stand at the garden's edge: Le Jardin d'enfants, a 6.6-metre ceramic and concrete assemblage created by Claude and Roland Brice in 1958 at Nadia Léger's request; and Fleur qui marche, a 3.15-metre patinated bronze by Roland Brice based on Léger's design for a variant of his 1952 ceramic La Fleur Polychrome, originally intended for the Hôpital Mémorial France-États-Unis in Saint-Lô.

The museum is located approximately one kilometre south-east of Biot's town centre in the Alpes-Maritimes department. It is one of 33 French national museums administered by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. The museum receives around 30,000 visitors annually. Its official website is http://www.musee-fernandleger.fr/.