Musée Cantini

André Derain, Pinède à Cassis (Landscape), 1907, oil on canvas, 54 x 65 cm

Paul Signac, L'entrée du port de Marseille, 1911, oil on canvas, 116.7 x 162 cm

The Musée Cantini is a museum in Marseilles that has been open to the public since 1936. The museum specializes in modern art, especially paintings from the first half of the twentieth century.

The building

The musée Cantini building was built in 1694 for the Compagnie du Cap Nègre. The company ran into financial difficulties and the building was sold in 1709 ^[1] to Dominique de Montgrand great-grandfather of Jean-Baptiste-Jacques-Guy-Thérèse de Montgrand, future Mayor of Marseille.^[2] The building was then sold to Louis Joseph Chaudoin in 1801 and to Dieudonné Bernadac in 1816. In 1888, it was acquired by Jules Cantini who bequeathed it to the City of Marseille in 1916, with the stipulation that it was to become a museum of decorative arts. The museum was opened in 1936.

The Collection

The Musée Cantini has one of the largest public collections in France of the 1900-1960 period. A wide variety of artists are represented, including Charles Camoin, Raoul Dufy, Albert Gleizes, Henri Laurens, Wassily Kandinsky, František Kupka, Jean Hélion, Alberto Magnelli, Amédée Ozenfant, Max Ernst, André Masson, Simon Simon-Auguste, Victor Brauner, Joan Miró, Jean Arp.

Pointillisme, fauvisme et cubisme

• Paul Signac, La Corne d'or, Matin, 1907 et Entrée du Port de Marseille, 1918
• André Derain, Pinède, Cassis, 1907
• Raoul Dufy, Landscapes of l'Estaque, 1908
• Albert Gleizes, L'Ecolier and Etude pour Femme assise, c.1920
• Emile Othon Friesz, Auguste Chabaud, Charles Camoin, Alfred Lombard

Inter-War Period

• Oskar Kokoschka, Le port de Marseille, 1925
• Jean Hélion, Composition verticale, 1936
• Alberto Magnelli, Pierres n°2, 1932
• Jeanne-Laure Garcin, Les Hommes et la machine, 1932
• Julio Gonzalez, Danseuse à la palette, vers 1934
• Wassily Kandinsky, František Kupka, Jacques Villon ...

Surrealism

• Max Ernst, Monument aux oiseaux, 1927
• Jacques Hérold, Les Têtes, 1939
• André Masson, Antille, 1943, Le Terrier, 1946
• Jean Arp, Genèse, 1944
• Joseph Cornell, Flat sand box, vers 1950
• Roberto Matta, Contra vosotros asesinos de palomas, 1950
• Wifredo Lam, Francis Picabia, Victor Brauner ...

From World War II to 1980

• Pablo Picasso, Tête de femme souriante, 1943;
• Fernand Léger, Nature morte au couteau, 1945;
• Nicolas de Staël, Harmonie rouge, bleue et noire, 1951;
• Alberto Giacometti, Portrait de Diego, 1957;
• Roland Bierge, Nature morte à la Théière brune, 1957;
• Balthus, Nature morte à la lampe, 1958, Le Baigneur, 1960;
• Jean Dubuffet,Vénus du trottoir, 1946, Brouette en surplomb I, 1964;
• Francis Bacon, Autoportrait, 1976;
• Antonin Artaud, Vieira da Silva...
• Jean-Charles Blais, s.t, huile sur bois et collage, 1986;

Drawings

The museum has drawings by André Derain, Pierre Bonnard, André Masson, Francis Picabia, Mark Rothko, Pablo Picasso, Edward Hopper, Victor Brauner, Jean Dubuffet...

Bibliography

• Régis Bertrand, Lucien Tirone, Le guide de Marseille, édition la manufacture, Besançon, 1991, ISBN 2-7377-0276-3

References

1. Gaston Rambert, Histoire du commerce de Marseille, Plon, Paris, 1954, 7 volumes, tome 4 page 235
2. Comte Godefroy de Montgrand, Armorial de la ville de Marseille, Alexandre Gueidon, Marseille, 1864, page 274-275

External links

• Musée Cantini

Coordinates: 43°17′32″N 5°22′41″E / 43.29222°N 5.37806°E