musée Nicolas-Poussin

The Musée Nicolas-Poussin is a municipal museum in Les Andelys, Eure, Normandy, France, certified as a Musée de France. Named after Nicolas Poussin, the great seventeenth-century French painter born in 1594 in the hamlet of Villers near Les Andelys, the museum documents the history of the town and its region through collections spanning archaeology, religious heritage, decorative arts, and painting. Its significance lies both in its regional scope and in its possession of a major painting by Poussin himself, making it a notable destination for scholars of French art and local history alike.

The museum was established in 1971 when Dr. Giraud, former chief physician of the Saint-Jacques hospital, bequeathed an eighteenth-century townhouse to the municipality of Les Andelys. Its first curator and founder was Léon Coutil (1856-1943), a local painter, archaeologist, and historian who had previously assembled the archaeological collections. The museum was named in honour of Nicolas Poussin, the most celebrated native of the area. Its thematic organisation reflects Coutil's vision of presenting the town's history across multiple domains: ancient, religious, industrial, and artistic.

The collections are arranged thematically by room and encompass four principal areas. Archaeology covers prehistory through Gallo-Roman and medieval periods, including material from excavations at the Château-Gaillard directed by Dominique Pitte in the 1990s. Religious heritage comprises sculpted works from the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century, liturgical vestments of silk embroidered with gold and silver thread, reliquaries, and church instruments including harmoniums. Eighteenth-century furniture includes pieces that belonged to Louis-Jean-Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre, founder of the Saint-Jacques hospice, as well as hospital pharmacy ware. Industrial history is represented by decorative glass objects and production tools from the Holophane glassworks, manufactured in the 1930s and 1940s. The painting collection features works from the École de Rouen, including René Prin, Eugène Clary, Marcel Couchaux, and René Sautin, alongside nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings.

The undisputed highlight is Nicolas Poussin's Coriolan supplié par sa famille (Coriolanus Supplicated by His Family), an oil on canvas measuring 1.12 by 1.98 metres, painted circa 1652. The subject, a Roman general who defected to the Volscians, may allude to the Fronde period (1648-1653). Seized in 1794 from Simon-Charles Boutin, a naval treasurer, the painting was sent to Les Andelys by the French state in Year XII (1803-1804), ranking among the earliest provincial deposits alongside works from the arrêté Chaptal. It remained in Évreux at the Eure prefecture until 1832, then moved to Les Andelys. It survived a fire that destroyed the law court on the night of 6-7 February 1860, and later escaped destruction when the town hall was bombed during the Second World War. Another major piece is a third-century Gallo-Roman mosaic, discovered in 1977 by François Vilepoux.

The museum occupies an eighteenth-century bourgeois townhouse, a substantial period residence that Dr. Giraud donated to the commune in 1971. This building provides an appropriate historical setting for the collections, particularly the eighteenth-century furniture and decorative arts. The structure itself forms part of the museum's historical narrative, linking the presentation of objects to the domestic and civic architecture of the period.

The Musée Nicolas-Poussin is located in Les Andelys in the Eure department of Normandy, France. It operates under municipal ownership and holds the official designation of Musée de France. Information on opening hours, admission, and current programmes is available through the official website maintained by the town of Les Andelys.