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Rouen is first and foremost a superb picture gallery. Its collection numbers almost three thousand works, eight hundred of which are on show, with some very rare names (Clouet, Caravaggio, Velázquez, Poussin), major single artist ensembles (Martin de Vos, Géricault), a fine collection of Russian icons, and the most important group of Impressionist paintings outside Paris, from the Depeaux bequest of 1909. From the Primitives to Abstraction, every period is represented by first class works. Large-scale religious painting of the 17th century is especially well-illustrated, as is the 19th century in all its aspects, from David to Realism, and Orientalism, and of course a number of Romantic masterpieces.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE COLLECTION

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Rouen, Gothic and Romantic city, has always been passionate about painting. The extraordinary collection built over two centuries is more the fruit of donations and enterprising purchases than of the revolutionary seizures which provided its original nucleus. This nucleus, expanded by the Napoleonic conquests, does contain a number of master works, such as the predella of the Perugino altarpiece from San Pietro in Perugia, the famous Virgin among the Virgins by Gérard David, the great Veroneses, and monumental 17th century paintings: Rubens, Vouet, Champaigne, Boullogne. Local confiscations during the Revolution reflected the richness of the city which attracted the greatest artists: the cycle of the Story of Eliezer and Rebecca by Maerten de Vos, painted for the church of Saint-Patrice, or the Descent from the Cross by La Hyre for the Capuchin monks of Rouen.
The museum was soon making ambitious purchases. By the mid-19th century, major works by Herrera, Traversi, Giordano, Castiglione, and Clouet's Diana in her Bath had been acquired. A rational acquisitions policy led to the collection's completion in the second half of the century. The 18th century was strengthened (The Washerwomen by Fragonard), and a special effort made to build a Géricault collection, consisting today of ten paintings. The opening of the new building in 1888 resulted in a new wave of donations, some supporting the Old Master tradition (in 1894-1905 Jules Hédou bequeathed paintings by Pieter Aertsen, Caesar van Everdingen, Hubert Robert, Boilly), others seeking to draw the museum into the modern era. 19th century painting remains, alongside the 17th century, the museum's great strength: David, Ingres, Delacroix, Gustave Moreau, Millet, Corot, Degas... François Depeaux defended the Impressionists and his donation in 1909 is still an exceptional moment in the history of France's museums. Masterpieces by Monet (Cathédrale de Rouen, temps gris, and Rue Saint-Denis pavoisée) and Sisley are surrounded by works of the Rouen School (Lebourg, Angrand, Pinchon, Delattre, Frechon...) which the industrialist defended with the same passion. In the collection of 144 paintings donated by Jacques-Emile Blanche between 1921 and 1933, his own works predominate, providing a complete portrait of an era, with others by his friends Sickert, very well represented, and Sargent. The move into modern art would not be easy, and it was only much later that the first Duchamps came to the museum. The Modiglianis given by the Alexandre family from 1988 onwards are the crowning point of a small modern art collection, oriented towards Abstraction since the Second World War (Vieira da Silva, Dubuffet and more recently Aurelie Nemours, Vera Molnar).