Grenoble Art Museum

About

This museum is founded on 16 February 1798 at the initiative of drawing professor Louis-Joseph Jay, and it is regarded as the first provincial museum in France to exhibit modern art. It first opens in the former bishop's palace in 1800, moves into the Central School building in 1802, and gains a new building in 1870. The present building opens on 29 January 1994. On 7 October 1922, an exhibition of ancient Egyptian art opens in the "Salle Sainte-Croix." Through the 1920s, director Andry-Farcy leads a concerted effort to collect modern art, and in 1921 the museum acquires a work by Pablo Picasso — the first time a French public museum does so. About 900 works from the collection are on permanent display, free of charge, spanning ancient Egyptian artifacts through modern and contemporary art in what is considered one of the more balanced collections among French museums.