The Musée des beaux-arts Thomas Henry is a museum at

Cherbourg-en-Cotentin Cherbourg-en-Cotentin () is a city in the department of Manche, Normandy, northwestern France, established on 1 January 2016.

(Manche) with around 300 artworks, mainly paintings from the 15th to 19th centuries. It has been rated as the third most important collection in Normandy.�
Musée des beaux-arts Thomas Henry
», ''www.ville-cherbourg.fr''

History

It was formed after a series of anonymous donations to the city between 1831 and 1835, totalling 163 paintings and later revealed to have been made by Thomas Henry, town councillor and art critic

France Huser France Huser is a French novelist and art critic who lives and works in Paris. Biography France Huser was an art critic at the Nouvel Observateur for many years. Her first novel, ''La maison du désir'', "the book of feelings", won her critica ...

, « Le mécène de la Normandie », ''Le Nouvel Observateur'' n°2022, 6 August 2003 — having lost his two sons, he wanted to allow the city's young people to gain an education in art. These young people included

Jean-François Millet Jean-François Millet (; 4 October 1814 – 20 January 1875) was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realism ...

, who copied paintings in the museum. In 1835, a museum was formed from these 163 paintings, including works by Italian 'primitives' such as

Fra Angelico Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro; February 18, 1455) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his '' Lives of the Artists'' as having "a rare and perfect talent".Giorgio Vasari, ''Lives of the Artists''. Pengu ...

(''The Conversion of Saint Augustine'') and

Filippo Lippi Filippo Lippi ( – 8 October 1469), also known as Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento (15th century) and a Carmelite Priest. Biography Lippi was born in Florence in 1406 to Tommaso, a butcher, and his wife. He was or ...

(''The Burial''). The foundational collection was completed by gifts from other inhabitants of Cherbourg, including capitaine Troude (1844), Armand Le Véel (a sculptor and curator of the museum) and the Ono family (who gave Millet's work in 1915). From 1965, the city decided to supplement private donations and state funding for acquisitions, in favor of the Millet fund. Initially housed in the Hôtel de ville, the museum re-opened in a dedicated cultural centre in 1983, alongside the bibliothèque municipale Jacques-Prévert, on the site of the city's former grain Halles. It received 30,554 visitors in 2009, compared to 18,957 visitors in 2007.
Fréquentation des musées de France
'', Museostat 2009, Direction générale des Patrimoines, Département de la politique des publics, 2010

Collection

The museum's collection is wide-ranging and it has been nicknamed the 'little

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

'. It notably includes a large number of paintings and sculptures by local artists. The most important works include: * early Italian artists, including

(''The conversion of Saint Augustine'') ; * Italian painters from the Renaissance to the 18th century, including

Filippino Lippi Filippino Lippi (April 1457 – 18 April 1504) was an Italian painter working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance. Biography Filippino Lippi was born in Prato, Tu ...

(''The Burial''),

Sebastiano Mainardi Bastiano di Bartolo Mainardi (1466 – 1513) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He was born in San Gimignano and was active there and in Florence. According to Giorgio Vasari, Mainardi is portrayed in the frescoes in the S ...

, Domenico Puligo,

Jacopo Bassano Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510 – 14 February 1592), known also as Jacopo dal Ponte, was an Italian painter who was born and died in Bassano del Grappa near Venice, and took the village as his surname. Trained in the workshop of his father, Francesco ...

Lavinia Fontana Lavinia Fontana (August 24, 1552 – August 11, 1614) was a Bolognese Mannerist painter active in Bologna and Rome. She is best known for her successful portraiture, but also worked in the genres of mythology and religious painting. She was train ...

Palma the Younger Iacopo Negretti (1548/50 – 14 October 1628), best known as Jacopo or Giacomo Palma il Giovane or simply Palma Giovane ("Young Palma"), was an Italian painter from Venice and a notable exponent of the Venetian school. After Tintoretto's death ...

Francesco Furini Francesco Furini (c. 1600 (or 1603) – August 19, 1646) was an Italian Baroque painter of Florence, noted for his sensual sfumato style in paintings of both secular and religious subjects. Biography He was born in Florence to an artistic f ...

, Bartolomeo Schedoni,

Carlo Saraceni Carlo Saraceni (1579 – 16 June 1620) was an Italian early- Baroque painter, whose reputation as a "first-class painter of the second rank" was improved with the publication of a modern monograph in 1968. Life Though he was born and died in ...

Francesco Solimena Francesco Solimena (4 October 1657 – 3 April 1747) was a prolific Italian painter of the Baroque era, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen. Biography Francesco Solimena was born in Canale di Serino in the province of ...

Giovanni Paolo Pannini Giovanni Paolo Panini or Pannini (17 June 1691 – 21 October 1765) was an Italian painter and architect who worked in Rome and is primarily known as one of the '' vedutisti'' ("view painters"). As a painter, Panini is best known for his vistas of ...

; * Flemish and Dutch art, including

Paul Bril Paul Bril (1554 – 7 October 1626) was a Flemish painter and printmaker principally known for his landscapes.Nicola Courtright. "Paul Bril." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 September 2016 He spent most of h ...

Jacob Jordaens Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter, Drawing, draughtsman and tapestry designer known for his history paintings, genre scenes and portraits. After Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyc ...

(''Adoration of the Magi''), Frans II Francken, Pieter Van Mol,

Willem van Aelst Willem van Aelst (16 May 1627 – buried 22 May 1683)Aelst, Willem van

Jan van Kessel, senior Jan van Kessel the Elder or Jan van Kessel (I) (baptized 5 April 1626, Antwerp – 17 April 1679, Antwerp) was a Flemish painter active in Antwerp in the mid 17th century. A versatile artist he practised in many genres including studies of i ...

Jacob van Loo Jacob van Loo (1614 – 26 November 1670) was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, chiefly active in Amsterdam and, after 1660, in Paris. Van Loo is known for his conversational groupings; particularly his mythological and biblical scenes generally ...

Jan Frans van Bloemen Jan Frans van Bloemen (baptized 12 May 1662 - buried 13 June 1749) was a Flemish landscape painter mainly active in Rome. Here he was able to establish himself as the leading painter of views ( vedute) of the Roman countryside depicted in the ae ...

Melchior d'Hondecoeter Melchior d'Hondecoeter (; 1636 – 3 April 1695), Dutch animalier painter, was born in Utrecht and died in Amsterdam. After the start of his career, he painted virtually exclusively bird subjects, usually exotic or game, in park-like landsc ...

Rachel Ruysch Rachel Ruysch (3 June 1664 – 12 October 1750) was a Dutch still-life painter from the Northern Netherlands. She specialized in flowers, inventing her own style and achieving international fame in her lifetime. Due to a long and successful care ...

, Gérard de Lairesse, Brueghel and Hendrick van Balen ; * Spanish 17th century painters, including

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Bartolomé Esteban Murillo ( , ; late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporar ...

(''Christ at Calvary''),

Francisco de Herrera the Elder Francisco Herrera (1576–1656) was a distinguished Spanish painter, born in Seville. He was the founder of the Seville school. Biography Francisco Herrera was born in Seville in 1576. Francisco Pacheco was his teacher, but Herrera soon broke ...

and

Antonio Palomino Acislo Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco (165513 April 1726) was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period, and a writer on art, author of ''El Museo pictórico y escala óptica'', which contains a large amount of important biographical mat ...

(''Saint Sebastian''); * French 17th and 18th century painters, including

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for ...

(''Pietà''),

Philippe de Champaigne Philippe de Champaigne (; 26 May 1602 – 12 August 1674) was a Brabançon-born French Baroque era painter, a major exponent of the French school. He was a founding member of the Académie de peinture et de sculpture in Paris, the premier art ...

Eustache Le Sueur Eustache Le Sueur or Lesueur (19 November 161730 April 1655) was a French artist and one of the founders of the French Academy of Painting. He is known primarily for his paintings of religious subjects. He was a leading exponent of the neoclass ...

Simon Vouet Simon Vouet (; 9 January 1590 – 30 June 1649) was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII of France, Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists c ...

Jacques Stella Jacques Stella (1596 – 29 April 1657) was a French painter, a leading exponent of the neoclassical style of Parisian Atticism. Life Stella was born in Lyon. His father was François Stella, a painter and merchant of Flemish origin, but ...

Charles de La Fosse Charles de La Fosse (or Lafosse; 15 June 1636 – 13 December 1716) was a French painter born in Paris. Life He was one of the most noted and least servile pupils of Le Brun, under whose direction he shared in the chief of the great decorativ ...

Hyacinthe Rigaud Jacint Rigau-Ros i Serra (; 18 July 1659 – 29 December 1743), known in French as Hyacinthe Rigaud (), was a Catalan-French baroque painter most famous for his portraits of Louis XIV and other members of the French nobility. Biography Rigaud ...

, Nicolas de Largillierre, Adam Frans van der Meulen,

Jean-Baptiste Oudry Jean-Baptiste Oudry (; 17 March 1686 – 30 April 1755) was a French Rococo painter, engraver, and tapestry designer. He is particularly well known for his naturalistic pictures of animals and his hunt pieces depicting game. His son, Jacques-Ch ...

Pierre Subleyras Pierre Subleyras (; November 25, 1699 – May 28, 1749) was a French painter, active during the late- Baroque and early- Neoclassic period, mainly in Italy. Life Subleyras was born in Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, France. He left France in 1728, having ...

, Jean Siméon Chardin,

Jean-Baptiste Greuze Jean-Baptiste Greuze (, 21 August 1725 – 4 March 1805) was a French painter of portraits, genre scenes, and history painting. Biography Early life Greuze was born at Tournus, a market town in Burgundy. He is generally said to have formed ...

, Joseph Vernet,

Hubert Robert Hubert Robert (22 May 1733 – 15 April 1808) was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.Jean de Cayeux. ...

, and

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away fr ...

. * the second most important collection of paintings and drawings by

after that of the

musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French a ...

; * several paintings by

Guillaume Fouace Guillaume Fouace (22 May 1837, Réville - 7 January 1895, Paris) was a French painter. He produced over 700 paintings in a realist style, mainly portraits, still lifes and landscapes - the Musée d'Orsay has some of them, whilst 40 are displayed i ...

, sculptures by Armand Le Véel, and works by artists from the Nord-Cotentin or represented there (including ''Gatteville'' by

Paul Signac Paul Victor Jules Signac ( , ; 11 November 1863 – 15 August 1935) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the Pointillist style. Biography Paul Signac was born in Paris on 11 November 1863. ...

), and other 19th century French painters, including

Théodore Rousseau Étienne Pierre Théodore Rousseau (April 15, 1812December 22, 1867) was a French painter of the Barbizon school. Life Youth He was born in Paris, France in a bourgeois family. At first he received a basic level of training, but soon displaye ...

and

Eugène Boudin Eugène Louis Boudin (; 12 July 18248 August 1898) was one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors. Boudin was a marine painter, and expert in the rendering of all that goes upon the sea and along its shores. His pastels, summa ...

. Image:Fra angelico - conversion de saint augustin.jpg, ''The Conversion of St Augustine'' by

Image:Jean-François Millet (II) 009.jpg, ''Portrait of Armand Ono'' by

Image:Fouace - départ pour jersey.jpg, ''Leaving for Jersey'' by

Temporary exhibitions

The musée Thomas-Henry has held a biennial exhibition of comic art since 2000 : *2000 :

Enki Bilal Enki Bilal (born Enes Bilal; born 7 October 1951) is a French comic book creator, comics artist and film director. Biography Early life Bilal was born in Belgrade, Socialist Republic of Serbia, PR Serbia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, ...

*2002 :

François Schuiten François Schuiten (; born 26 April 1956) is a Belgian comic book artist. He is best known for drawing the series '' Les Cités Obscures''. Biography François Schuiten was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1956.De Weyer, Geert (2005). "François Sch ...

*2004 : André Juillard *2008 : Jacques de Loustal *2009 :

Hugo Pratt Ugo Eugenio Prat, better known as Hugo Pratt (15 June 1927 – 20 August 1995), was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as '' Corto Maltese''. He was ind ...

*2011 :

Mœbius Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (; 8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012) was a French artist, cartoonist, and writer who worked in the Franco-Belgian ''bandes dessinées'' (BD) tradition. Giraud garnered worldwide acclaim under the pseudonym Mœbius (; ) ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musee Thomas-Henry Art museums and galleries in France Museums in Manche Cherbourg-Octeville Art museums established in 1836 1836 establishments in France