Marc Chagall National Museum
From 1969the Minister of Culture,André Malraux, decides the construction of a museum to preserve the Biblical Message after its donation to the State. It began in 1970 on a vast land, offered by the City of Nice, where a villa from the beginning of the century was built in ruins.
Chagall follows with interest the project: he asks that an auditorium be part of the planned rooms. He also wishes to enrich the building by adding the auditorium stained-glass windows and a mosaic that leads to the modification of the museum's traffic axes.
In 1973, the artist is present for the inauguration of the national museumBiblical messageMarc Chagall, with André Malraux and the then Minister of Culture,Mauritius Druon.
Until his death in 1985,Marc Chagall accompanied the first years of the institution’s life. He is present at the openings of exhibitions and, thanks to his friendly relations, launches a prestigious concert policy.
After Chagall's death, the museum benefits from the deposit of an important part of the dation (procedure that allows the payment in works of art of inheritance rights. The Chagall dation counted more than 300 works. New acquisitions gradually enrich the collections and, thanks to the support of the painter’s heirs, the museum becomes a monograph in its entirety, demonstrating both the spirituality of the artist’s work and its inscription in the artistic currents of the XXèmecentury.
In 2000, the museum gets the label "Patrimoine of the twentieth century", named sincelabel "Remarkable contemporary architecture".For more information
2008so the museum changes its name and becomesMarc Chagall National Museum.
2006-2007, an importantcampaign has made it possible to modernize the technical parts of the museum without changing its appearance: a welcoming building (the rotunda) was created in the garden to respond to the significant increase in visitor flows (from 30,000 in the year of the opening to almost 200,000 today), offices and larger reserves have found place in the first basement.
The building
Choosed for the construction of the museum, the architectAndré Hermant(1908-1978) is a former employee of Auguste Perret and Le Corbusier, a member of the UAM (Union of Modern Artists). He is the defender of a design of architecture where the function determines the form. The social end is also at the heart of its approach.
Director of the magazine "Art et Architecture en France", André Hermant became interested in the museum since the 1960s. He then became a privileged interlocutor of the administration of the museums of France: he transformed the Petit Palais d'Avignon into a museum (1961-1965); he took part in the renovation of the Musée des Antiquities nationales in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1961-1969); the museographic path of the parvis and the crypt of Notre-Dame-de-Paris (1970-1974).
For the future Niçois museum, the idea of a “house”, of a place of spirituality, wanted by Marc Chagall, required a serenity climate without imposing the presence of a building. At the refusal of gravity that is everywhere present in the work of the artist, the architecture of Hermant responds by the sobriety of the walls and the rigor of the forms that allow to emphasize and highlight the art of Chagall. The architect has perfectly responded to a very special requirement in the world of museums: create a new place suitable for pre-existing works to present permanently. The large room, where the 12 paintings illustrating Genesis and Exodus are hung, is thus developed in a plan articulated on three losanges that interpenetrate, thus offering 12 walls for each of the paintings.
In 2006-2007, an important work campaign allows the museum to modernize its technical parts without changing its appearance: a welcoming building (the rotunda) is created in the garden to respond to the significant increase in visitor flows (30,000 per year of the opening, more than 178,000 visitors in 2019).
The garden
In the beginning, God created the garden of Eden.... So it was all natural that a garden would welcome the visitor before his entrance to the museum. The Mediterranean flora is obviously a prominent place: olive trees, cypress trees, pines and green oaks.
Henri Fisch, creator of this garden, chose with the agreement of Marc Chagall, cold tones and white and blue flowers. The agapanthes bloom every year for the 7th of July, the anniversary of Chagall. Against the building, a basin reflects the mosaic created by the artist.