Atger Museum

With its 1,000 drawings and some 5,000 prints, the Atger Museum, nestled amid the historic buildings of the Faculty of Medicine, is the oldest museum in Montpellier. Its unexpected presence here is the result of the generosity and deliberate choice of Montpellier collector Xavier Atger (1758–1833), a knowledgeable and passionate art lover.

The intellectual vitality of the School of Medicine, where an exceptional library was established in the early 19th century, explains this choice. But Atger also wanted—in line with a humanistic vision of medicine shared by the school’s professors—to enable students to engage with art and, in particular, to study drawing, a technique essential to their training and, above all, an unparalleled means of honing their powers of observation.

Atger thus strives to present a broad overview of themes and techniques, bringing together both lesser-known and renowned masters of the French, Italian, and Flemish schools.

The French school is, of course, the most widely represented, with artists such as Fragonard, Philippe de Champaigne, and Hubert Robert, as well as the “southerners” Sébastien Bourdon, Charles Natoire, and Raymond Lafage.

The Flemish and Northern European works are just as interesting, including, in particular, a beautiful double-sided Rubens, two drawings by Van Dyck, and a remarkable portrait of an elderly man by Jordaens.

The Italian section, featuring 150 drawings, includes such great names as Carracci, Guercino, and Donatello, as well as the Venetian Giambattista Tiepolo, whose 26 works are particularly helpful in understanding Atger’s passion for drawing—an art form in which he saw “warmth, energy, and expression” that were unmatched.

The 2017 donation of 81 drawings by Montpellier-based artist Colette Richarme (1904–1991) opens the door to a fruitful dialogue between contemporary works and classical art.