MuMa Le Havre a MUST Attraction
The Musée d’art moderne André Malraux is also known as Musée Malraux or MuMa. It is a very popular Normandy tourism attraction. This gorgeous museum is located by the sea in Le Havre, Normandy. It contains one of France’s most extensive collections of the impressionism art movement from the late-19th and 20th-century.
André Malraux, then France’s Minister of Cultural Affairs, inaugurated this museum in 1961 .
Muma is a lovely museum overlooking the harbor. The museum is spacious, bright and full of natural light, which is very unusual for an art museum.
This museum showcases many landscape paintings dedicated to the harbor, and coastal and ocean views of the Normandy area.
We particularly enjoyed the permanent exhibition on the first floor that showcases the famous French impressionists and post-impressionists like Pissaro, Sisley, Renoir, Degas, Monet, Matisse, Courbet, Dufy and others. It is a first class collection.
Claude Monet [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
We also loved the extensive collection of paintings of the Honfleur born painter Eugene Boudin. Art historians believe that Boudin was the forerunner to the impressionism art movement.
Boudin taught Monet the plein-air technique that would be the foundation of the future Impressionism:
“Three brush strokes from nature are worth two days in the studio.” Boudin
Monet later recalls his art education with Eugene Boudin by saying:
“My eyes were finally opened and I really understood nature; I learned at the same time to love it.”
Eugene Boudin [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
We spent just under two hours in this wonderful museum, including a visit to the cafe on the third floor, resting our legs and watching the boats & people go by.
For more details about the museum and current exhibitions, press here. Also, check out the Normandy Tourism website for more wonderful Normandy attractions.
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