Musée Ingres-Bourdelle

Montauban is a red-brick city on the Tarn river, in Occitanie, north of Toulouse, and it has given two great artists to France: the painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, born here in 1780, and the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, born in 1861. The Musée Ingres-Bourdelle, which honours them both, is housed in the former bishop's palace, a large building beside the Tarn and the old bridge, in the centre of the town. The place has a long history. The site was occupied by a medieval fortress built by the Black Prince's English garrison, and later the building became the palace of the bishops of Montauban in 1664, rebuilt in the characteristic red brick of the region. It is classified as a historic monument.

The museum began in the nineteenth century and has been enlarged to about 2,700 square metres. Its core is the Ingres collection. After the painter's death in 1867, his widow bequeathed to his home town a mass of his work, including some 4,500 drawings, a number of paintings and personal belongings such as his violin, which gave rise to the French expression for a hobby, un violon d'Ingres. The paintings include The Dream of Ossian, a large and dreamlike work from his early career, and the drawings show his famous skill as a draughtsman, in portraits and studies for major canvases. Seeing them in this context gives an idea of the working method of the leading figure of French Neoclassicism.

The sculptor Bourdelle, a pupil of Rodin who became a teacher of many modern artists, is celebrated in the lower galleries. His work covers monumental pieces and studies in bronze, stone and plaster, and the best-known is Herakles the Archer, a muscular figure drawing a bow, which exists in several casts around the world. His pieces show the shift from Rodin's expressive modelling to a more architectural style in the early twentieth century. The upper floor shows earlier paintings, Italian and Northern European, from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, which place the two artists in a wider setting, and temporary exhibitions on the ground floor often feature contemporary artists.

The museum charges an entry fee with reduced rates, and its opening hours change between summer and winter, with later closing on summer days, so check them before you go. Allow two hours.

It suits art lovers and those who enjoy small but rich provincial museums. The Place Nationale, with its arcades, and the Collégiale Saint-Jacques are close to it, as well as the Parc de la Châtaigneraie.