Menard Art Museum

The Menard Art Museum is a museum located in Komaki, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It opened its doors to the public in 1987 and houses a significant collection of 19th and 20th century European paintings, Western sculptures, and Japanese art. The institution is notable for its comprehensive assemblage of both traditional Japanese style paintings, known as Nihonga, and Western influenced Japanese works, or Yoga, alongside major European canvases spanning from realism and impressionism to classical modernism.

The museum traces its origins to the initiative of entrepreneur Daisuke Nonogawa and his wife, both natives of Komaki. Daisuke Nonogawa founded the cosmetics company Nippon Menard Cosmetic Co., and the couple assembled a private art collection that formed the foundational core of the museum. The institution, which takes its name from the cosmetic company, opened to the public on October 28, 1987, to share the couple's amassed artworks with a broader audience.

The collection encompasses more than 1,300 artworks, including painting, sculpture, and crafts from the 19th and 20th centuries originating from Europe and Japan. The European holdings feature painting and sculpture movements ranging from French realism and impressionism to symbolism and classical modernism. The Japanese collection is broadly divided into two categories: Nihonga, representing traditional Japanese painting techniques, and Yoga, representing works influenced by Western art movements. The museum displays these works in rotating exhibitions.

European painting highlights include Gustave Courbet's The Death of Desdemona, Edouard Manet's Portrait of Jeanne Martin in hat adorned with rose, Vincent van Gogh's Man in a Field or Evening, the End of the Day, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's Englishwoman at the Moulin-Rouge, and James Ensor's Self-Portrait with Masks. Modern European works include pieces by Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Fernand Leger, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Marc Chagall, Joan Miro, and Giorgio Morandi. Western sculptures feature Auguste Rodin's Balzac statue, Antoine Bourdelle's Heracles, Aristide Maillol's Ile-de-France, Alexander Archipenko's Femme debout, and a horse and rider by Marino Marini. Nihonga artists in the collection include Tawaraya Sotatsu, Ogata Korin, Katsushika Oi, Yokoyama Taikan, Uemura Shoen, and Higashiyama Kaii. Yoga artists represented include Fujishima Takeji, Kishida Ryusei, Umehara Ryuzaburo, and Munakata Shiko.

Daisuke Nonogawa and his wife commissioned a purpose built museum to house their art collection. The structure is a single story building organized around a central rectangular courtyard. A gallery, three exhibition rooms, and service facilities are grouped around this interior courtyard. The architecture utilizes high quality materials, with granite and glass elements defining the exterior facades, while marble is extensively employed in the interior finishes.

The Menard Art Museum is located in Komaki, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The institution continues to operate as a public museum, sharing the private collection of its founders through rotating exhibitions of its permanent holdings. Information regarding access and current exhibitions is available on the museum official website.