the Lansyer museum invites contemplation in Loches!

The Lansyer museum in Loches is located in the heart of the royal city of Loches. A haven of peace and greenery, it is strikingly tranquil and timeless when you cross the garden to enter. In the museum, moreover, one continues to be enchanted by this garden which is visible from all the windows. Needless to say, the landscapes are present and inspiring, inside and out!

Emmanuel Lansyer (1835-1893) is one of the rare painters to have been able to live from his painting, rather well by the way. But as Véronique Lourme, Manager of the Heritage Department at the town of Loches, explains to us, he worked a lot on it and it was more than deserved! Becoming a painter was his vocation from adolescence: “I will do everything possible and impossible to become a painter” he tells us in his autobiography in 1881. In “1866, he became an official painter, his works were purchased by the state. His landscape career culminated in 1881 with his decoration of the Legion of Honor and his election to the jury of the Salon of French Artists. Filled with honours, Lansyer died in Paris in 1893. He is buried in Loches”. His landscapes, naturalistic and of great diversity, inspired by his frequent trips to Brittany in particular, are particularly realistic, almost photographic and looking at some of his marine works, you can have the impression that the spray will splash on you so much the foam seems real. He is considered one of the best landscape painters of his time along with Corot, the French painter and engraver, a contemporary of Lansyer.
In the museum, a former family home that he had inherited from his mother and bequeathed to the town of Loches, you can comfortably settle down on a large sofa to admire his know-how. In addition to the 500 paintings by the Master, the Lansyer museum houses a collection of 2000 engravings, 1000 Japanese objects and numerous photographs and personal objects because the painter was also a great art lover and collector.

Thanks to sensory installations, presentation texts accessible to all and adapted visits, the museum approaches the works and the life of the artist with simplicity. In free access, adults and children benefit from many interactions and manipulations to observe and understand the universe of the painter. The discovery room: Installed at the end of the route, on the first floor of the museum, this room is entirely dedicated to families. It offers many playful and educational supports to understand the works, the techniques and the life of Lansyer while having fun.