“People of Le Havre, take note that later they will say that it was here, today, that it all began” – André Malraux, 24 June 1961
Le Havre is a port, so its museum, the MuMa, is a glass and steel vessel facing the sea, accessed by a footbridge. We then embark on a cultural adventure in the footsteps of the Le Havre-born or adopted Monet, Dufy, Friesz, Braque, Dubuffet and many other artists.
This museum stands out from other museums for its daring architecture (Guy Lagneau and Raymond Audigier) and its total openness to the outside, allowing light to enter. When it opened in 1961, it also housed the first Maison de la Culture for several years.
The initial collection, created by a city wishing to bring together and identify itself with a heritage, reflected the different European schools of painting from the Renaissance onwards.
The Museum’s true identity, centred on Impressionism and Fauvism, would be built up in addition to certain acquisitions in the 20th century through donations from Louis Boudin in 1900 (240 works by his brother Eugène), bequests from Charles Auguste Marande (1936), a dealer and great collector (Monet, Gauguin, Pissarro, Jongkind, Marquet, Camoin, Van Dongen, etc) and Dufy, a local born and bred, in 1963.
In 2004, the Senn-Foulds donation of 205 works (Delacroix, Corot, Courbet, Sisley, Pissarro, Monet, Guillaumin, Degas, Cross, Sérusier, Bonnard, Valloton, Derain, Matisse, Marquet…) from the collection of Olivier Senn, a merchant and friend of Marande, made the Musée Malraux the second Impressionist collection after Orsay.
In 2009, the same generous benefactor this time offered the collection of her father, Édouard Senn, a total of 67 works. Finally, in 2015, 17 new works from another branch of the Senn family joined the collections.
In the meantime, the circle of patrons contributed to the acquisition of a Friesz and a Marquet from the Fauvist period.
In 2019, in memory of her father, Florence Malraux bequeathed a painting by Georges Braque.
The MuMa is a must on any photographic tour of Le Havre and the Alabaster Coast. Its architecture on the seafront really makes its mark, as does the sculpture of the Signal, often called “the eye”, located on the Museum’s forecourt. Outside, try to capture the originality of the work according to the angle used and frame the taut edges of the building.
2 boulevard ClemenceauLE HAVRETel. 02 35 19 62 62E-mailWebsiteLearn more
