Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau is the municipal art museum of Pau, a city in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of southwestern Franceched France. Founded in 1864, it ranks as the second most important museum in the Aquitaine region after the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. Its collection spans European fine arts from the 16th to the 20th centuries, with particular depth in 19th-century French painting. The museum is especially noted for holding Edgar Degas's A Cotton Office in New Orleans, the first painting by the artist to be acquired by a museum. Located on Rue Mathieu Lalanne in the city center, the museum occupies a purpose-built Art Deco structure designed by Jacques Ruillier and opened in 1931.

The museum originated from the Société des Amis des Arts de Pau, established on 12 April 1863 under the leadership of Charles-Clément Le Cœur (1805-1897). On 15 March 1864, the society founded the museum with municipal support, and Le Cœur became its first curator. The initial collection comprised approximately 25 paintings from the town council, supplemented by Eugène Devéria's legacy and loans from private collectors. In 1872, the museum received thirty paintings from the collection of Louis La Caze, the most significant legacy from his collection to any museum outside Paris, reflecting his family's Béarn origins. From 1875, the museum benefited from an annual grant of 8,000 francs from lawyer Émile Noulibos, designated for acquiring contemporary French works.

The museum's first site in the Parlement de Navarre proved inadequate, and in 1881 collections moved to the former asylum building. Le Cœur's request for a dedicated building was refused. In 1924, architect Gustave Umbdenstock proposed renovating the Parlement de Navarre to house both museum and library, but costs proved prohibitive. Construction of the current building began on 1 April 1929, financed by promoter Henri Lillaz in exchange for land on what became Place Georges-Clemenceau. The Parisian architect Jacques Ruillier designed the new structure, completed in 1930 and inaugurated by Louis Barthou in 1931.

The museum closed in 1942 due to water leakage from its original glass roof. Renovations began in 1950, and it reopened in 1953 with a new double-slope roof. In 2011, six paintings on deposit at Villa Saint Basil's were stolen following a reception. Renovations completed in 2019 merged the museum with the adjacent library, with the latter space becoming home to the École supérieure d'art et de design des Pyrénées. In 2024, a sketch by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo stolen from the Museo del Prado in 1907 was discovered in the collection, having been acquired ten years after its disappearance without knowledge of its provenance; due to the imprescriptible and inalienable status of works in French museums, it was temporarily deposited at the Prado in 2025 pending restitution.

The museum's collection covers European fine arts from the 16th through the 20th centuries, with particular concentration on 19th-century French painting. Its holdings were notably shaped by the La Caze bequest and systematic purchases at the annual salons of the Société des Amis des Arts, funded by the Noulibos endowment for modern and contemporary French school works. The collection encompasses major European schools including Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, and French painting, with representation of academic, Realist, Impressionist, and Symbolist movements. Sculpture is also represented, including a bronze bust by Auguste Rodin.

The museum's most celebrated work is Edgar Degas's A Cotton Office in New Orleans, acquired in 1878 and notable as the first painting by the artist purchased by any museum. The Spanish Baroque school is represented by El Greco's Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Jusepe de Ribera's Saint Jerome, Francisco de Zurbarán's Portrait of Felipe de Guimaran, and Alonso Cano's Christ on the Cross. Flemish and Dutch masters include Jacob Jordaens, David Teniers the Younger, Philips Wouwerman, Jan Lievens, Peter Paul Rubens, and Jan Brueghel the Elder. Italian works feature Pietro della Vecchia's Tobias Taking the Heart and Liver of the Fish, Andrea Solari's Holy Family, Simone Cantarini's Hagar and the Angel, and Luca Giordano's A Philosopher.

French 19th-century holdings include Horace Vernet's Judith and Holofernes, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps's Don Quixote and Sancho, Alfred Dehodencq's Bullfights in Spain, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot's Fontainebleau at the Gorges of Apremont, and Théodore Rousseau's The Pyrenees Seen from Ustaritz. Impressionist and related works include Berthe Morisot's Pasie Sewing in the Garden at Bougival, Henri Rouart's Mandolin Player and An Alley at La Queue-en-Brie, and Stanislas Lépine's Banks of the Marne. Symbolist works include Eugène Carrière's Mother and Child and To See and Understand, and Henri Fantin-Latour's Poet's Dream or Spring Night and Dances. The museum also holds 20th-century works by Kees van Dongen, André Lhote, Lucien Simon, and Albert Marquet, and contemporary pieces by Raymond Guerrier and Jean-Jacques Morvan.

The museum's current building measures 31 by 34.5 meters and forms a large parallelepiped with smooth, severe white walls. The symmetrical west façade features five bays divided by grooved pilasters, with three large doors on the central spans surmounted by first-floor windows. The design breaks with the prevailing Beaux-Arts museum architecture of the era, merging neo-classical elements with modern Art Deco principles. The interior is organized around an atrium, with access to the first floor via a monumental double marble staircase displaying large-format works including Eugène Devéria's The Birth of Henry IV. The original reinforced concrete roof terrace with its central glass roof for natural zenithal lighting caused persistent leaks that forced the 1942 closure; the 1950 renovation replaced this with a double-slope roof. The 2019 renovations linked the museum to the neighboring former library building, which was reassigned to the École supérieure d'art et de design des Pyrénées.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau is located on Rue Mathieu Lalanne in the center of Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. It operates as a municipal museum under town ownership. The museum has hosted significant temporary exhibitions, including Picasso. Arte y Arena in March 2010, featuring 39 works on bullfighting themes from the Fundación Picasso-Casa Natal, and L'éternel féminin from September to December 2014, presenting 66 Picasso prints from the Fundación Picasso de Málaga.