From Cézanne to Giacometti
These rooms explore 20th century art through works by its greatest artists, acquired as part of the Meyer donation.
Philippe Meyer (1925–2007), a physicist and collector with a love for music and poetry, and a generous patron of French museums, amassed a unique art collection of carefully selected works. He gifted many of these pieces to the Musées de France in 2000.
Comprising over a hundred paintings, drawings, sculptures and artists’ books, it includes works by Degas, Cezanne, Bonnard, Vuillard, Picasso, Léger, Mondrian, Klee and de Staël. The masters of the past engage with leading fi gures of modern and contemporary art, mostly from before the 1960s, creating a remarkable sense of unity and depth.
In accordance with the collector’s wishes, the donation was divided between the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and the Musée Granet, which received seventy-one works. This long-term loan is a tribute to Cezanne, the precursor of modern art, and to his birthplace, which held particular signifi cance for Philippe Meyer. The paintings, pastels, drawings and sculptures are now on permanent display, adding a modern and contemporary dimension to the Musée Granet’s collection.
Works by earlier masters — Guardi, Corot, Boudin and Chardin, whom Cezanne admired — now enter into dialogue with modern artists such as Picasso, Léger and Tal Coat. This arrangement vividly reflects how these artists engaged with Cezanne’s legacy, expanding and transforming his artistic vision. The remarkable group of paintings, sculptures and drawings by Alberto Giacometti is a major highlight and a defi ning component of the entire collection.
In pictures
