Musée de Tessé

The Musée de Tessé is the central museum of fine arts for the city of Le Mans in France, located on the edge of the Quinconces des Jacobins and the Parc de Tessé. It is housed in a former episcopal palace and holds particular distinction as one of the first public museums in France, opening to free public access on 21 June 1799. The museum is especially renowned for its major ancient Egyptian collection, which includes reconstructed burial chambers in its basement, and for its holdings of French seventeenth-century painting.

The idea of establishing a town museum emerged toward the end of Louis XVI's reign, just before the French Revolution. Le Mans became one of the first cities in France to obtain a museum when it opened on 21 June 1799, with official foundation on 1 September 1801. The museum was initially installed in the galleries of the former Abbey of Saint-Pierre de la Couture, which now houses the Sarthe prefecture.

The collection was largely formed through Revolutionary confiscations. A decree of 1789 on the seizure of clergy goods took full effect from 1792, and private collections were confiscated across the town and the Maine region. Nearly 400 works were seized from the collection of the maréchal de Tessé, whose descendant René Mans de Froulay de Tessé had fled to Switzerland in 1790. Religious buildings were also pillaged, including Saint-Vincent Abbey and the church of Notre-Dame de la Couture, under the direction of François-Yves Besnard, president of the directory for Sarthe.

The museum's early administration saw considerable turnover. Louis-Marie Auvray, Le Mans' first prefect, engaged naturalist Louis Maulny to catalogue the works alongside curator André-Pierre Le Dru, appointed on 5 February 1793. Maulny, who had identified and preserved the Plantagenet Enamel from Geoffrey V of Anjou's tomb, produced the first catalogue of two hundred paintings. After libraries were suppressed on 28 January 1803, Pierre Renouard took over but was dismissed in 1816 for damaging works. Jean-Antoine Daudin, an engineer, assumed charge of both natural history and fine arts collections in 1816; the collections became municipal property in 1822. Daudin died in 1832, leaving the collection in disorder. Narcisse Desportes served from 1834 to 1856 with little innovation, followed by his painter nephew Charles Dugasseau, who acquired Italian Primitive works from Evariste Fouret's collection. Henri Vallée directed the museum from 1890 for thirty years, during which collections expanded but natural history specimensmimeType suffered from poor storage and was eventually burned. Louis Monziès was appointed by the Minister of Fine Arts, and Arsène Le Feuvre served from 1932 to 1936 before being replaced by Félix Geneslay.

The Musée de Tessé's collections span fine arts, ancient Egyptian antiquities, and decorative arts. The core holdings derive from Revolutionary-era confiscations, particularly the Tessé family collection, which is documented through inventories of 1766 and 1794 and consists mainly of seventeenth-century French painting. The museum also received deposits from across western France, including Angers, Anjou, Maine, and eastern Brittany.

The ancient Egyptian collection stands as a particular strength, featuring basement reconstructions of burial chambers made possible by a donation of photographs from the Kodak-Pathé Foundation. The museum also formerly housed local archaeological collections until these were transferred in 2009 to the Museum of Archaeology and History of Le Mans. Additional holdings include decorative arts such as ceramics, furniture, textiles, arms, numismatics, and sigillography.

The museum's painting collection includes significant works from the French seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Among the notable deposits received on 28 November 1799 were: Philippe de Champaigne's The Adoration of the Magi (c. 1628, oil on panel, 1.90 x 1.22 m) and Elijah's Dream (c. 1655, oil on canvas, 1.82 x 2.08 m); two works attributed to Eustache le Sueur depicting Cincinnatus; Laurent de la Hyre's Christ at Gethsemane (c. 1627); Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet's The Presentation in the Temple (c. 1685); and Noel Coypel's Amalthea and the Cornucopia (c. 1688).

Other significant works include Theodoor Van Thulden's The Pentecost (1647-1648), Jean Restout's Abraham and the Angels (c. 1736), Carle Van Loo's Washing of the Feet (c. 1742), Simon Julien's The Sacrifice of Manoah (c. 1760), Carle Vernet's David and Abigail (1779), Etienne-Barthélémy Garnier's Nebuchadnezzar Having the Sons of Zedekiah Killed in the Presence of Their Father (1787), and Johannes-Bernadus Duvivier's Horace Killing His Sister Camille (1785).

The Spanish Wikipedia source also mentions two paintings by Philippe de Champaigne (La Vanidad and El sueño de Elías), a still life with armor by Willem Kalf, and three oils illustrating Paul Scarron's Roman comique, as well as a secretaire that belonged to Louis XV.

The Musée de Tessé is located in Le Mans, France, and is owned by the municipality. It offers numerous guided visits on diverse themes. The museum's website is maintained by the city of Le Mans. Visitors should note that the archaeological collections were moved in 2009 to the separate Museum of Archaeology and History of Le Mans, so the Tessé now focuses on fine arts and Egyptian antiquities.