Musée de la Chartreuse de Douai

Interieur of the museum

Built by Jacques d'Abancourt in brick and stone in the Renaissance style, on the site of the house of the "Colombier", the hôtel d'Abancourt (1559) with its round tower was extended in 1608 by Jean de Montmorency, who added a square building in the same style with a square tower. In 1623 it was acquired by the Premonstratensians of Furnes. It finally saw itself become a home for Carthusian monks in the middle of the 17th century, via the construction of a chapter house and a small cloister (1663), a refectory (1687), the prior's lodgings (1690) and finally - after a large cloister and cells which were demolished in the 19th century - a chapel in the Jesuit style (not restored yet). On the French Revolution the building was turned over to military use and it was later damaged by bombing in 1944. It was bought by the city in 1951 and from 1958 was used to replace the buildings housing the city's musée des Beaux-Arts, which had been destroyed in the Second World War at the same time as the neighbouring boys' lycée.

The current museum complex includes several 16th, 17th and 18th century buildings. To its left is the hôtel d'Abancourt-Montmorency, built between 1559 and 1608 in the Flemish Renaissance style. Built in the classical style at the start of the 18th century, the complex's church is made up of a vast nave and five side chapels. After a six-year restoration campaign, this church was used to display objets d'art and sculptures to the public, with the 19th century sculptures in the nave and objets d'art in the side chapels, including medieval goldwork and a series of bronzes and terracottas by Giambologna, who was born in Douai.

The ancient convent is listed as a Monument historique since 1930 by the French Ministry of Culture.[1]

• 1852 - Théophile Bra gave the works in his studio
• 1857 - Doctor Escalier gave his collection of 176 Flemish and Dutch paintings
• 1877 - Foucques de Wagnonville bequeathed the museum his collection, including several statues by Giambologna
• Unknown date - Jean-Baptiste Fortier left the museum a sum of money allowing the purchase of works by Veronese, Rubens and Gustave Courbet

• Jacques Guillouet
• Anne Labourdette since 2007

Over 100 works are on show, chronologically retracing the evolution of European painting from the Middle Ages to modern art.

The museum also organises temporary exhibitions, such as Douai, d'un siècle à l'autre (1999, presenting the plan for the reconstruction of Douai drawn up by the architects Alexandre Miniac and Petit, on the initiative of the Secretary of State for Reconstruction). Others include:

• Au cirque, le peintre et le saltimbanque, shown at the Musée de la Chartreuse de Douai 9 April-18 July 2004. Commissariat Général : Françoise Baligand & Zéev Gourarier.

Catalogue : Au cirque, le peintre et le saltimbanque, collectif, Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai - Somogy Éditions d'Art, Paris (2004). ISBN 2-85056-736-1.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Musée de la Chartreuse.

• Official site
• Musée de la Chartreuse: Ancien couvent des chartreux
• Musenor digital archive, Association des Conservateurs des Musées des Hauts-de-France