Musée Granet, Art museum in Quartier Mazarin, Aix-en-Provence, France.
Musée Granet is an art museum in the Mazarin quarter housed within former religious buildings from various periods. The galleries contain paintings, sculptures, and archaeological pieces spanning from medieval times to the contemporary era.
A first museum opened in 1838 in the former priory of Saint-Jean-de-Malte. The Granet wing was built from 1860, followed by a second building after 1870 and a third in 1900, with the complex enlarged around 1940. In 1949, on the centenary of François Marius Granet's death, the museum took his name; he had bequeathed his paintings and drawings to Aix in 1849.
The museum presents works by French and Italian masters alongside Impressionist pieces, allowing visitors to trace the development of European painting from medieval times through the modern era.
The museum stands on place Saint-Jean-de-Malte in the Mazarin quarter, next to the Church of Saint-Jean-de-Malte, with which it shares a garden. The 20th-century works of the Planque collection are shown in the Chapelle des Pénitents blancs, a short walk away, under the name "Granet XXe". Some major paintings and sculptures are kept in storage, so check what is on display before coming.
The museum's name dates only from 1949, when it was renamed on the centenary of François Marius Granet's death; he had bequeathed his paintings and drawings to his native city in 1849, and two hundred of the drawings went to the Louvre under his will. A marble bust of Granet by the Lyon sculptor Jean-François Legendre-Héral was given to the museum in 1895.
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