Collections

The Bonnat-Helleu Museum brings together centuries of antiquities, paintings, drawings, sculptures and decorative arts, creating a dialogue between some of Europe’s greatest artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Dürer, Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, El Greco, Goya, Poussin, Watteau, Ingres, Delacroix, Géricault, Degas, and many others.

Built through the generosity of artists and collectors who wished to share their love of art with the widest possible audience, this remarkably diverse collection owes much to the Bayonne-born painter Léon Bonnat (1833–1922). The museum owes him far more than its name: it is also the beneficiary of nearly 3,500 works bequeathed by the artist to the French national museums, on the condition that they be displayed in Bayonne. This testamentary provision has since forged a lasting bond between the Louvre Museum and the Bonnat-Helleu Museum. Today, these works remain part of the Louvre’s collections and together constitute the largest group of long-term deposits held by the museum anywhere in France.

The generosity of Bonnat and the prestige of his collection encouraged many other benefactors to enrich the museum in turn. The bequests of Antonin Personnaz (1937), Jacques Petithory (1992), and Paulette Howard-Johnston (1989 and 2011) brought major works into the museum, ranging from the Italian Renaissance to Impressionism and the Belle Époque. Following the latter bequest, which included an outstanding collection of works by the painter and printmaker Paul Helleu (1859–1927), the museum adopted his name alongside that of Bonnat.