The Goya Museum reopens after a three-year construction period

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The work on the Goya Museum began in 2020 just after the first containment and took only three years. Three years is a remarkable timeframe for restoring a building and completely redoing a museum. This speed is to be commended for work of this kind, which tends to take five years at best, often longer due to frequent delays.
The work began under the auspices of the former director Jean-Louis Augé, who retired in 2021, and was continued by the new curator, Joëlle Arches. We did not write an article on this occasion, so this is an opportunity to catch up. After several positions related to museums and heritage, in Foix, Toulouse, and as director of the Musée de l’Aurignacien in Aurignac, she joined the Institut national du Patrimoine in 2020, before taking over the direction of the Musée Goya in July 2021.

The speed of the project, which cost 15 million euros, was not synonymous with haste. With the exception of a few inevitable criticisms that we can make, and a major error of taste concerning the staircase, the result is very satisfactory. A clear chronological tour that extends over almost twice as much space as before, thanks in particular to the space gained from the town hall with which the museum shares the premises; particularly careful lighting that allows the works to be admired without reflections; Walls repainted perhaps with colours that are too dark and uniform, but which contrast pleasantly with the white that is too often the norm; well-designed explanatory labels, with a few discreet interactive terminals that provide those who want additional information with it, and which can be ignored without any problem by those who do not need it... A real success, therefore, for the most part, a very beautiful museum whose entirely Hispanic collections, paintings but also sculptures - we will come back to this - deserve every praise.


1. Spain, 17th century
The Wedding at Cana, painting hung a little too low
Oil on canvas
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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Some paintings are nevertheless hung a little too low, when the wall space would allow them to be seen in a manner more in keeping with their original purpose. This is the case, for example, of the Wedding at Cana (ill. 1), a large anonymous painting - an attribution to Francisco de Herrera is under discussion - which really deserves to be raised. To prevent visitors from knocking their knees into the canvases, the alarm system is too present, sounding for a yes or a no, which in the long run will render it inoperative because no one will pay attention to it anymore. Along with the lack of variety in the colour of the walls, these are our only criticisms, along with those of the paving of the courtyard, which is rather mediocre, but above all the treatment of the grand staircase, on which we must focus.


2. Landing of the museum staircase after works
Photo : Didier Rykner
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3. Staircase of the Bishopric of Castres
(town hall and Musée Goya) in 2018
Photo: Didier Rykner
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This, before the closure, took visitors directly to the entrance of the museum, which was via a large room on the first floor. Now, the tour begins on the ground floor, with small exhibition spaces reclaimed from the town hall, before the permanent collections are installed on the first floor. The visitor has to cross the staircase landing to reach the old entrance after which the tour continues. And this is where the problem lies, with an enormous metal barrier made of glass and steel (ill. 2) that mutilates the space and profoundly distorts the monument. One can understand the objective: to prevent visitors from the town hall from entering the museum without going through the official entrance. Admittedly, any solution would have been better than the one chosen. No doubt the lack of historic monument protection for the interiors - understandable for a building where few ancient remains are preserved, but incomprehensible for the staircase - is to blame. The fact remains that the result is disastrous, and that the explanation given (children must not be able to pass through the banister) is somewhat absurd: in 2018, when we visited the museum, we were using the staircase with the other visitors, there was no such arrangement (ill. 3) and we have never heard of a child falling down the staircase...


4. Medieval Room of the Goya Museum
On the back wall, panels from the altarpiece of Saint Martin by the Master of Riofrio
Photo: Didier Rykner
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5. Joan Mates (c. 1370-1431)
Saint John the Evangelist at Pathmos
Tempera on panel - 70 x 90 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo: Didier Rykner
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But let’s return to the ground floor at the new entrance, where we begin with rooms whose size allows for the installation of special exhibitions (there is currently a display of Miró’s homage to Gaudi). Although entirely new, they are nevertheless insufficient for large-scale events: it is to be hoped that the project to create large exhibition spaces not far from the museum will soon become a reality.
Then we go upstairs where the permanent tour begins, with a room devoted to Spanish art in the Middle Ages (ill. 4), where we see paintings and sculptures from the 14th and 15th centuries (ill. 5), and the panels of the altarpiece of Saint Martin by the master of Riofrio, around 1500. This is the dawn of the Spanish Renaissance, which unfolds in a second room where we can admire a magnificent Deploration of Christ by Vincente Macip and Juan de Juanes (ill. 6), and an alabaster Saint John the Baptist by Damián Forment (ill. 7), which would have deserved a more extensive cartel.


6. Vincent Macip (1475-1550) and
Juan de Juanes (c. 1507-1579)
The Deploration of Christ
Oil on panel - 70 x 60 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo: Didier Rykner
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7. Damián Forment (c. 1480-1540)
Saint John the Baptist
Alabaster - H. 47 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo: Didier Rykner
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But one of the greatest riches of the Goya Museum is its collection of paintings from the Golden Age, the 17th century, which fills six rooms, some of them very large. It begins with the Portrait of Philip IV, a long-term loan from the Louvre at a time when it thought the work was only a studio work, recently returned to the artist by Guillaume Kientz on the occasion of the Grand Palais retrospective, and with two large paintings by his master Francisco Pacheco (ill. 8), judicious and relatively recent acquisitions (the end of the 1990s), as well as a full-length portrait by Pantoja de la Cruz.


8. Francisco Pacheco (1564-1644)
The Last Judgement, 1511-14
Oil on canvas - 338 x 235 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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9. Spain, 17th century
Saint Anthony of Padua
Polychrome wood
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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10. Spain, 17th or 18th century
Saint Francis (not shown)
Polychrome wood - H. 40 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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In the next room, where is The Wedding of Cana already mentioned, with two remarkable Juan de Valdés Leal, we see three anonymous but excellent sculptures (ill. 9). The 17th and 18th century Spanish sculptures in the Goya Museum - of which there are many other examples throughout the visit - are rarities in French museums. Most of them are a long-term loan of the Musée d’Écouen, where they obviously cannot be placed. Several were already on display before the closure, but the new presentation has enabled some of them to be taken out of storage, although it is regrettable that two Saint Francis (ill. 10) seen in 2018 are not on display. The plan is to show them in rotation, which is difficult to justify as there is enough room to display everything.


11. Former entrance room of the Musée Goya on the first floor (after the staircase landing)
The wall paintings between the windows were rediscovered during the work
Photo: Didier Rykner
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The tour continues after the staircase, in a large room that was once the first in the museum, where a wall decoration was found and uncovered (ill. 11). This room is somewhat empty and would benefit from more works - the two St. Francis could be exhibited here without difficulty. In the next two rooms, in addition to paintings by Alonso Cano (ill. 12) and Claudio Coello, two very good representatives of the Golden Age, the three Theological Virtues (ill. 13), sculptures dating from the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, are newly presented, as well as the only Latin American painting in the collection, a very beautiful copper by the Mexican Juan Rodriguez Juarez, and two small wax reliefs on metal.


12. Alonso Cano (1601-1667)
The Visitation
Oil on canvas - 222 x 175 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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13. Spain, 17th or 18th century
Charity
Polychrome wood - H. 59.5 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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The large room that follows, in length, almost a gallery (ill. 14), certainly testifies when compared with the museography that prevailed before (ill. 15) to the success of the new museum, modern without being in any way flashy and without sacrificing a moment of pleasure in the visit.


14. Room known as "The Holy Martyrs of the 17th Century
Photo: Didier Rykner
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There are a large number of altarpieces and paintings by artists both very well known - Ribera (ill. 16), Coello, Greco’s workshop, Luca Giordano [1] - or less famous but of great interest, such as the only Sebastian Muñoz in French museums (see brief of 18/3/06).


15. Former museography (2018) of the room shown in the previous illustration
Photo: Didier Rykner
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16. Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652)
The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew
Oil on canvas - 218 x 198 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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Also on display are sculptures, some of which were already shown before the closure, but others which are being exhibited for the first time, including a Sleeping Child Jesus by Pedro de Mena ill. 17) loaned by a private collector and, from the Écouen collection, an impressive severed head of Saint John the Baptist or Saint Paul (ill. 18) and a Massacre of the Innocents (ill. 19) in several highly realistic groups. The latter has just been restored, and an attribution to the Sicilian sculptor Giovanni Antonio Matera has been proposed.


17. Pedro de Mena (1628-1688)
The Sleeping Child Jesus
Polychrome wood
Deposit of Clément Guenebeaud to the Musée Goya, 2022
Photo : Didier Rykner
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18. Espagne, XVIIe ou XVIIIe siècle
Tête coupée de saint
Jean-Baptiste ou saint Paul

Bois polychrome, argent - 26 x 33,5 x 27 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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19. Attributed to Giovanni Antonio Matera (1653-1718)
The Massacre of the Innocents
Polychrome wood, coated canvas, metal
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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20. Spain, 17th century
Still life with herring and
kitchen utensils
, c. 1650
Oil on canvas
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Musée Goya
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In the next room we find, among others, a recent acquisition of the museum, made in 2022 directly from a private collection. It is a beautiful Still Life with Herrings and Kitchen Tools (ill. 20). This joins a small but interesting group of Spanish still lifes, all of them anonymous.
Next come the three paintings by Goya, the museum’s eponymous painter. These works were bequeathed to the museum by the son of the collector Marcel Briguiboule, who had acquired them when the artist was still unknown in France. The choice here, which can be understood exceptionally, particularly because of the very large canvas The Assembly of the Royal Company of the Philippines, is that of a sparse hanging, which dramatises the presentation (ill. 21).


21. Goya Room, with in the background
The Assembly of the
Company of the Philippines

Photo: Didier Rykner
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22. Goya Print Room
Photo: Didier Rykner
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There is then a room dedicated to Goya’s prints (ill. 22), of which the museum has a large collection and which will be kept there permanently in the drawers under the glass cases. Equipped with lighting that only comes on when visitors enter, it allows them to be displayed in rotation, again avoiding unwanted reflections.


23. Eugenio Lucas y Velázquez (1817-1870)
Racing of the Bulls, c. 1860
Oil on canvas - 26 x 30 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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24. Valentin Jumel de Noireterre (1824-1902)
The Duel, 1853
Oil on canvas - 32.5 x 40.8 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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25. Léon Bonnat (1833-1922)
Young woman giving charity
at the entrance to the chapel of the hospital
Saint Sebastian of Cordoba
, 1863
Oil on canvas - 110 x 134 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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The Spanish 19th century is hung next - note, however, a Francisco Bayeu, which dates from the 18th - with notable works by Eugenio Lucas y Velázquez (ill. 23) and Federico de Madrazo and others of a more anecdotal or somewhat lower quality, including two neoclassical paintings: Socrates Teaching by Jose Aparicio Inglada (long-terme loan by Lyon) and Judith and Holofernes by Josep Bernat Flaugier.
After a room devoted to donors, where two very surprising small paintings by Valentin Jumel de Noireterre (ill. 24), of a very goyesque inspiration, we see works from the 19th century marking the discovery of Spain by French painters. The museum can thus exhibit paintings by Alfred Dehodencq, Adrien Dauzats, Henri Fantin-Latour (copying Murillo), Eugène Giraud and Léon Bonnat (ill. 25). Note the very recent acquisition from a private collection of a Gustave Doré, The Spanish Smuggler (ill. 26), and the long-term loan by Orsay of a small painting by Thomas Couture (ill. 27).


26. Gustave Doré (1832-1883)
The Spanish Smuggler
Oil on canvas
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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27. Thomas Couture (1815-1879)
Dwarf with a dog
Oil on panel - 21,5 x 18,3 cm
Castres, Musée Goya
Photo : Didier Rykner
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The first half of the 20th century - the final stage of our visit, contemporary art, which benefits from two rooms, being outside our field - is represented in particular by a fine group of sculptures, including several works by Pablo Gargallo loaned by his descendants, and by the fascinating Spanish Fighter by Javier Bueno directly inspired by a painting by Zurbarán (ill. 29).


28. Room with sculptures by Pablo Gargallo (left)
with The Spanish Fighter by Javier Bueno in the background
Photo: Didier Rykner
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At the end of this tour, we can only emphasise the success of this museum, which is certainly worth the trip, especially as the city has a rich heritage to which we will return shortly. Starting with its remarkable Italian-style theatre, decorated with two major works by Jean-Paul Laurens: a large tempera painting in the foyer, and above all the ceiling of the auditorium, which is not well known by tourists.

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