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The Denys-Puech Museum catches the eye. It was designed in the early 20th century and is devoted to sculpture in all its forms. You can visit the permanent collections and temporary exhibitions detailing the evolution of sculpture in history.

An extraordinary building

André Boyer drew up the plans for the Denys-Puech Museum that was inaugurated on July 17th 1910. Still today, large bay windows create a rhythm on the façade and flood the ground floor with light to showcase the sculptures.

In 1989, the artist François Morellet worked on the side walls of the Fine Arts Museum. He layered basic geometric shapes (a circle and square) made out of the same materials as those used in André Boyer’s architecture. You can only see them from a specific point of view and they melt into the building’s architecture as soon as you move away.

In 2005, Aveyron artist Aurèle created portraits of bronze bull terriers painted yellow. They stand on the outer consoles.

François Morellet’s additions and Aurèle’s sculptures are part of the Art in the Aveyron public area.

Denys Puech

Denys Puech’s sculptures take pride of place on the museum’s ground floor. Awarded the Grand Prix de Rome and famous in his lifetime, he is one of the 3rd Republic’s official sculptors.

He was famous for his melancholic portraits of women and held onto a very traditional academic style throughout his career, separating him from artistic movements that revolutionised art in his time. He was also renowned for his portraits.

Sculpture de portraits au musée Denys-Puech de Rodez

Maurice Bompard and Eugène Viala

The museum walls are adorned by work by Maurice Bompard and Eugène Viala around Denys Puech’s sculptures.

Their friend Denys Puech convinced the painter Maurice Bompard (1857-1935) and engraver Eugène Viala (1858-1913) to donate some of their work to the collections of the future Fine Arts Museum.

Maurice Bompard was a French Orientalist painter born in Rodez. He was one of the founders of the Orientalist French Painters Society. He also decorated the communal areas of the Hôtel Mercure de Rodez (lounge and dining room).

Eugène Viala was born in Salles Curan. The painter, author and engraver really shone inetchings with his own signature style. He was antisocial, a loner, believed in anticlericalism, was an anarchist free thinker but was a great nature lover first and foremost. His favourite subjects were certain bleak aspects of his homeland, the Lévezou. He was a great admirer of Gustave Moreau, influenced by romanticism and symbolism so most of Viala’s work is imbued with “fantasy“.

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Denys-Puech Museum.

Musée des Beaux-Arts Denys-Puech à Rodez

Sculpt your curiosity at the Denys-Puech Museum

At Rodez, Denys-Puech museum is a “pocket museum” devoted to sculpture in all its forms. You will discover the work there artists aveyronnais.