Musée Petiet

The Limoux Fine Arts Museum was created thanks to a donation by the Petiet family who in 1880 donated the building and its contents to the commune.

The original collection was mainly made up of canvases  painted by the founding family.  Marie Petiet (1854-1893), set herself apart from her father and uncle through the quality of her work : she studied in the Parisian studio of Henner and regularly exhibited in the Salon. Her paintings often depicted her relatives and close friends doing day-to-day activities like Les Blanchisseuses (the washerwomen) her most famous work.

Paintings by Etienne Dujardin-Beaumetz, Marie’s artist husband who was the Under Secretary of State for the Arts, were added to the original collection. The museum displays several of his paintings that portray the War of 1870.

The collections focus on the academic painting from the second half of the nineteenth century and on the post-impressionist movements of the following century thanks to loans from the State. The museum has a beautiful collection of works by Achille Laugé and his contemporaries, Henri le Sidaner and Aman-Jean.