Musée Paul Valéry

Built on the hillside of Mont Saint Clar on a terrace that overlooks the sailor’s cemetery and the Mediterranean Sea, the Paul Valéry museum boasts an extraordinary view and an exceptional site. Designed by the architect Guy Guillaume along the lines of Courbousier, the building was completed in the early 70’s.

Besides the collection specifically connected with Paul Valéry, the museum shows works by well-known and celebrated international artists from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries .  On display are painters whose work was often inspired by the region and the Midi ( Courbet, Marquet, Dufy …) and those who belong to the two Sète schools that gave the city its reputation in the world of plastic arts : the Montpellier – Sète group who are linked to François Desnoyer (Gabriel Couderc, Georges Dezeuze and much later Jean-Hugo, Pierre François…) and the artists from a younger generation such as Robert Combas, Hervé, and Richard Di Rosa, who are leading lights in the 80’s Figuration Libre movement.
The graphic arts collection is also extremely rich and includes drawings by Doré, Jongkind, Degas, Cézanne, Matisse, Marquet, Gris, Marinot, Desnoyer, Villon, Pignon, Gromaire, Dubout, amongst others.