Bagnols-sur-Cèze · Since 1917 · The friendship museum

The Albert André Museum preserves in Bagnols-sur-Cèze a modern figurative collection built by friendships between painters, critics and donors.

In 1917, the painter Albert André became curator of the encyclopedic museum of Bagnols-sur-Cèze and resolutely oriented it towards living art. Close to Auguste Renoir, he solicited artists, gallery owners and critics to constitute one of the first provincial modern art museums. Monet, Renoir, Bonnard, Marquet, Matisse, Signac, Valtat and many other creators supported the project with donations. A fire in 1924 destroyed part of the old collections but also frees up spaces that allow modern painting to be further asserted. After the death of Albert André in 1954, the critic Georges Besson and Jacqueline Besson continued this story with their legacies. The museum is like that often referred to as a "friendship museum": its coherence comes less from a theoretical program than from lasting human relationships. The works selected illustrate this diversity. Monet erases the horizon in the reflections of the Water Lilies. Matisse grabs Georges Besson then opens the color through a window. Berthe Morisot finally transforms the entrance to a port into a quick and luminous sensation. The "Albert André Museum" selection notably compares Water Lilies, reflections on the water - Monet and Portrait of Georges Besson - Matisse. Its reading favors atmosphere.

In Bagnols-sur-Cèze, modernity was built through trust: artists give their works to a painter-conservative who knows how to look at and defend them.