Art Of The Day Weekly

Nantes: Italian art, but not only

NANTES – The museum built its reputation on its remarkable fund of Italian art, the property of François Cacault, a diplomat based in Florence and Rome at the time of Napoleon. It therefore holds a beautiful series of gold-grounds, Caravaggio-inspired works, and a few great names such as Perugino or Orazio Gentileschi. But the museum, which opened in 1900 in a huge, typical, “fine arts” style building, was treated to a full, five-year rejuvenation by the British agency Stanton Williams. The result is an enlargement in the form of a luminous cube with a new name, the Musée d’arts de Nantes. We take this opportunity to mention that the institution is also interested in more contemporary forms of art, in particular abstract art with beautiful series by Kandinsky and Manessier, as well as videos by Bill Viola or the personal cabinet of Jean-Jacques Lebel. An interesting aspect of the museum are the local talents who are not always valued as they deserve, such as “academic” artists Delaunay or Picou, talented James Tissot, a genius with cloth, and a strong group of Surrealists, from Pierre Roy to Claude Cahun.
• The Musée d’arts de Nantes will reopen to the public on 23 June 2017.

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