Marc Chagall Museum

Nice, France

The Musée Marc Chagall is dedicated to the work of painter Marc Chagall - essentially his works inspired by religion - located in Nice in the Alpes-Maritimes.

The museum was created during the lifetime of the artist and inaugurated in 1973. It houses the series of seventeen paintings illustrating the biblical message, painted by Chagall and offered to the French State in 1966. This series illustrates the books of Genesis, Exodus and the Song of Songs.

Chagall himself provided detailed instructions about the creation of the garden by Henri Fish, and decided the place of each of his works in the museum. The chronological order of the works was not followed. Chagall created the mosaic which overlooks the pond and the blue stained glasses that decorate the concert hall; he also wanted an annual exhibition to be held on a topic related to the spiritual and religious history of the world.

As the collection has grown, what was a museum illustrating the theme Biblical message has become a monographic museum dedicated to Chagall's works of religious and spiritual inspiration. In 1972, the artist gave the museum all the preparatory sketches of the Message Biblique as well as stained glass and sculptures, and in 1986, the museum acquired, in lieu of inheritance taxes, the complete drawings and gouaches painted to depict the Exodus and ten other paintings, which includes the triptych named Résistance, Résurrection, Libération. Other acquisitions complemented the museum's collections, which now has one of the largest collection of works by Marc Chagall.

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Details

Founded: 1973
Category: Museums in France

Rating

4.4/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

David Abramowitz (14 months ago)
Superb collection of Chagall’s artwork. We thoroughly enjoyed it. There is a QR code for commentary of some of the artwork which is very helpful. Also a nice addition is the QR code for kid’s commentaries as well.
Gary Hoolsema (14 months ago)
The museum is not easily assessable by foot. It’s a small museum and was mainly about his published illustrations and his history of putting them together. They had many paintings but mentioned very little of his stained glass accomplishments which is probably more noticeable. They had two windows in the auditorium of his creations.
Natalia (15 months ago)
A must museum for those fans of Modernist Art. In this one, the visitor will find many works religion-inspired of the artist: depictions of illustrations related in the Old Testament, as the artist was Jewish. Also, some works are abstracts, free to interpretation. Chagall was as well remarked for stained glass windows, and some of them can be found in this museum.
Anna Romano (16 months ago)
The artworks are majestic. Small Museum, not too many pieces, 10 eur ticket, museum not included in the Museum pass like the rest. The audio guides via QR code very practical and good, free WiFi should be provided tho
Nasser Manesh (16 months ago)
Great layout, a good number of large paintings by Chagall, and also an impressive set of prints including prints that were made for books. It is definitely worth spending a couple of hours. My only disappointment (and the reason for 4 stars instead of 5) is that the paintings are mostly picked from the religious works of Chagall, and some of the masterpieces are missing. Nonetheless, there's a sense of awe from standing in front of these paintings.
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