1.The educational workshop and the Éléonore de Provence auditorium
Sculptural and immaculate, the helix-shaped staircase, which rises in the museum’s entrance hall, provides an unparalleled well of light, while distributing the spaces of the museum. A real invitation to discover the two wings of the ground floor. From the entrance, the museum offers us two directions.
On the street side, the educational workshop which welcomes schoolchildren in particular. There is today a consensus on the need for artistic and cultural awakening among young children. Cultural experiences thus offer a good way to express their creativity, encourage their curiosity, and their development. In its extension opens the Éléonore de Provence auditorium. This conference room can accommodate around sixty people, which its retractable bleachers allow to transform into a small concert hall.
A little further, the museum also has a gallery presenting masterpieces from the 17th to the 20th century, followed by a succession of intimate cabinets.
2.The richness of the permanent collections
The route then takes us to the heart of a sober scenography, suggesting the decor and atmosphere of an 18th century stately home. We immerse ourselves in the history of art and the momentum of collectors since the Age of Enlightenment, but we can also understand the stages of a work, from its conception to its hanging in the museum. Here, a selective and unprecedented panorama celebrates renowned painters and sculptors such as Martin Desjardins, Philippe de Champaigne, David Téniers, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Hubert Robert, Paul Delaroche, Louis Boulanger, Félix Ziem or even Auguste Renoir, Camille Claudel and Charles Camoin.
A mezzanine fitted above the rooms on the ground floor opens up a new breath of fresh air in the museum space. The side corridors are no longer simple places of passage but now accommodate exhibition spaces “peripheral” to the visit. We thus discover an archaeological gallery and a gallery of portraits of high personalities of the Var since the Revolution. The discovery of the first floor follows.
3.The authenticity of unique works and the cabinet of curiosities
The first floor is intended to be a consecutive journey where we go from discovery to discovery, with the choice of a chronological or thematic reading. Thus, the 19th century Chinese cabinet reveals its wallpaper decoration behind the partitions of the old library, in almost its entirety and in an excellent state of conservation. There are only around thirty examples in the world, most of them incomplete. Like a precious jewel, this masterpiece was rediscovered during the museum’s work.
In the next room stands the Mausoleum dedicated to Joseph-Alphonse-Omer de Valbelle, a great lord in the 18th century. The reconstruction of this monumental piece in marble is a first for a museum since its dispersion during the Revolution. Third stage of the visit to the first floor, the guards’ room reveals the ceremonial armor of François de Montmorency, a masterpiece of armory production from the mid-16th century, and a centerpiece of the museum and the Renaissance.
The cabinet of curiosities completes the journey with the part of dream, science and utopia undoubtedly characterizing enlightened amateurs or curious people of the genre. There are hundreds of butterflies, birds, oriental objects and other sumptuous painted ostrich eggs.
4.Iconic works to be discovered exclusively at the Draguignan museum
The museum preserves two iconic works long attributed to Rembrandt. The first probably comes from the master’s entourage or a follower. The second, The Young Man with the Soap Bubble was possibly thought to be its counterpart. If neither of the two paintings is by the hand of the master, their comparison evokes the aura and the influence of the painter beyond his time and his importance in the training of artists. Discussed in the first room of the tour, the “Rembrandt mystery” places the power of the imagination and curiosity at the heart of the museum’s purpose. “Rembramania” will also be the theme of an exhibition for 2025-2026.
Built between 1779 and 1782, the marble mausoleum of the last Count of Valbelle, a Var military figure, is one of the most spectacular works in the museum. As for the ceremonial armor of François de Montmorency, it is one of the jewels of the new Draguignan museum. Present at least since the 17th century in the inventory of the Château du Luc, property of the Ventimiglia family, military jewelry combines the know-how and sophistication of Renaissance goldsmithing and armory.
5. Exhibitions to promote Var heritage
New themes are also emerging new Museum of Fine Arts of Draguignan, allowing it to promote Var heritage in connection with the works in its collection. This will be the case, in June 2024, with the temporary exhibition dedicated to the discreet Sainte-Roseline chapel in Arcs-sur-Argens, whose decor, the fruit of the patronage of Marguerite Maeght, brought together Marc Chagall, Jean Bazaine, Raoul Ubac and Diego Giacometti.
And in the same spirit, by 2026, the museum will explore the imaginations conveyed by Sainte-Baume, a thousand-year-old pilgrimage site. A unique proposition which allows the Museum of Fine Arts of Draguignan to assert its identity, while constituting a new museum stage between Marseille, Toulon and Nice.
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