Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, housed in two wings flanking the Hôtel de Ville in the centre of Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, is one of the oldest and most significant provincial fine arts museums in France. The collection was founded in 1801 and occupies a purpose-built Neoclassical gallery (the Galerie des Beaux-Arts) added to the south of the Hôtel de Ville in 1881. The permanent collection spans European painting and sculpture from the 15th century to the mid-20th century, with particular strength in the Flemish, Dutch, Italian, and French schools. Among the most celebrated works in the collection are Rubens's large-format canvas The Martyrdom of Saint George, Titian's Tarquin and Lucretia, Veronese's Perseus and Andromeda, and Delacroix's Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi, painted in 1826 as a tribute to the Greek struggle for independence and one of the artist's most politically charged canvases. The Dutch and Flemish galleries hold a strong collection of 17th-century still lifes, portraits, and landscape paintings by artists including Jan Steen and David Teniers the Younger. The French school is represented across several centuries, from 17th-century classical painting through the Romantic and Realist movements to Post-Impressionism. A dedicated section documents the Bordeaux school of painting, which flourished in the 19th century under artists including Rosa Bonheur, who trained in the city. The museum also holds a significant collection of 18th-century French sculpture and decorative arts associated with the civic patronage of the prosperous wine-trading city. Admission to the permanent collection is free, and the museum is open Wednesday to Monday from 11:00 to 18:00.