La collection Bruyas du musée Fabre de Montpellier

A unique figure among 19th-century collectors, Montpellier patron Alfred Bruyas spent thirty years building up a rich collection of over 300 paintings, sculptures and drawings in Paris, Rome and Montpellier, most of which he donated to the Fabre Museum. The collection includes works by such famous artists as Delacroix, Courbet, Géricault, Ingres and Cabanel. Although he acquired works from dealers and at public auctions, he particularly enjoyed commissioning artists directly, thereby contributing to the creation of the works. His numerous portraits, around thirty in total, are the most original testimony to his practice.

Not content to enjoy his collection in solitude, Bruyas became involved in the artistic life of his time, supporting painters, participating in exhibitions, encouraging associations and publishing his theories on the role of art in society. This commitment was crowned in 1868 by the donation of his gallery to the Fabre Museum, followed by a bequest upon his death in 1877.

This catalogue raisonné lists all the works in this collection at the Musée Fabre, supplemented by numerous essays and appendices that reveal one of the most astonishing art lovers of the 19th century. A series of entries listing and commenting on all the works in the collection, accompanied by their bibliographical and exhibition references and classified in chronological order of acquisition, allow us to see how the collection was built up, enriched and transformed over the years.