The Granet Museum

The history of the Granet Museum is that of the erudite Aixois passionately attached to their city. Born in the middle of the XIXth century, installed in the very chic and new Mazarin district, within the former priory of Malta, in fact the museum has been establisehd from the gifts and bequests of wealthy inhabitants of the city - mostly parliamentarians. Among them, the painter François-Marius Granet, a pupil of Jacques-Louis David and a friend of Girodet and Ingres, bequeathed to Aix-en-Provence his collection of paintings - many of which went to the Louvre. A portrait of this generous patron, painted by Ingres, can be seen in the museum.

The collections of the Granet Museum continued to be enriched, thanks to the donations from individuals, but also from public deposits: in 1984, the State deposited in the museum a set of works by the painter Paul Cézanne, Child of the city. To this collection was added in 2011 a Portrait of Emile Zola, bought by the community of the country of Aix.

The collections of modern art bequeathed by Philippe Meyer in 2000, as well as those of Jean Planque eleven years later, bring the museum into the art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. To highlight these important additions, the museum invests the Chapel of the White Penitents of the Carmelites, which dates from the seventeenth century.

The Granet Museum offers more than 12,000 works today. Attracting every year a great many lovers of the arts, it is a real pride for Aix. There are few cities of this size to have such a fund.

During your stay in Aix-en-Provence, do not miss to visit this place forged by the time and love of the Aixois for their city.

You can access both sites (the museum and the chapel) with a single ticket. Guided visits by speakers are suggested to you : for more information, you can visit the museum's website: http://www.museegranet-aixenprovence.fr/nc/accueil.html