Jeux & joutes à cheval
Event date : Saturday, 10 February 2024
Since ancient times, often for the sole benefit of the elite, the horse has offered mankind its strength and speed. During competitions, riders and drivers have selected the best animals. They have taken on tough opponents and thrilled the crowds that have come to admire them. Alone against all, in duels or in teams, in a field lined with lices or on open ground, they pushed back the limits of the game, even if it meant risking their lives.
The exhibition is divided into three parts, highlighting the origins of the Olympic and Panhellenic Games. Martial games, tournaments, jousts, and carousels showcase various playful training techniques for warfare over a broad period ranging from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. Finally, the third section presents the most popular team games: polo, pãto (horse-ball), and buzkashi.
Navigation et commerces aux 17e et 18e siècles. Entre Orient et Occident, découverte de la collection de céramiques.
Event date : from Tuesday, 08 October 2024 until Sunday, 01 December 2024
Buvons ! La Faïence raconte le vin
Let's drink! Wine as told by Faience - Past exhibition
Event date : from Saturday, 10 February 2024 until Sunday, 22 September 2024
From one Loire region to another, an exhibition co-produced by the towns of Saumur and Nevers, under the scientific curatorship of Jean Rosen, Emeritus Director of Research at the CNRS. A selection of nearly 200 works retraces the parallel evolution of wine and faience from the 17th to the 19th century, with exceptional loans from the Louvre, Sèvres -From one Loire region to another, an exhibition co-produced by the towns of Saumur and Nevers, under the scientific curatorship of Jean Rosen, Emeritus Director of Research at the CNRS. A selection of nearly 200 works retraces the parallel evolution of wine and faience from the 17th to the 19th century, with exceptional loans from the Louvre, Sèvres -Manufacture et Musée nationaux, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the museums of Dijon and Strasbourg, as well as private collections.
Award of the National Interest Exhibition Label
Granted by the Ministry of Culture to museums in France presenting outstanding exhibitions, this label highlights and enhances regional initiatives while supporting the richness and diversity of collections in French museums. More specifically, it rewards innovative museum narratives, unique thematic approaches, scenography, and mediation strategies aimed at engaging a wide variety of audiences, particularly in the context of artistic and cultural education.
TOLKIEN - LE POUVOIR DE L'IMAGINAIRE - D'Aubusson à Saumur, voyage en Terre du Milieu
THE POWER OF THE IMAGINATION - From Aubusson to Saumur, a journey to the Middle-earth - Past exhibition
Event date : from Saturday, 03 June 2023 until Sunday, 05 November 2023
Thanks to the exceptional loan of works from the Tolkien hanging woven by the Cité internationale de la Tapisserie, Aubusson, the Château-Musée takes its visitors on a journey into the universe of the creator of The Lord of the Rings and explores the prolific world of fantasy.
Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves, d'après une aquarelle originale de J.R.R. Tolkien pour The Hobbit, 1937 © The Tolkien Estate Ltd 1937. Tissage Ateliers A2 et Françoise Vernaudon, Aubusson 2018. Collection Cité internationale de la tapisserie. Photo Studio Nicolas Roger. Oeuvre réalisée avec le soutien de la Fondation d'entreprise AG2R LA MONDIALE pour la Vitalité Artistique, grand mécène de la tenture "Aubusson tisse Tolkien", de la Fondation des Pays de France du Crédit Agricole, du Tolkien Trust et avec l'aide du Fonds Européen de Développement Régional (FEDER).
Charles Lair et le Château de Saumur - Le centenaire d'une collection d'exception
The centenary of an outstanding collection - Past exhibition
Event date : from Saturday, 22 October 2022 until Monday, 01 May 2023
The Château-Musée de Saumur is celebrating the centenary of an outstanding collection with a tribute to the generous donor behind it, Count Charles Lair.
October 1922: the public of Saumur discovered the exceptional collection of Count Charles Lair, presented in the east wing of the château, renovated for the occasion. In 2022 an exhibition celebrates this centenary by paying tribute to the great donor whose collection has transformed the Château-Musée.
Charles Lair was born in 1841 in Saumur and died in 1919 in Angers. He collected art throughout his life that he spent at his Château de Blou near Saumur, his mansion in Paris and countless trips all over Europe and around the Mediterranean.
His confident and eclectic taste led him to ceramics, furniture, objets d'art, textiles and sculptures from the Middle Ages to the 18th century alongside a few rarities and bookplates. The passionate scholar, man of God and relentless antique hunter's collection was down to more than just wealth; he was a true connoisseur.
He wanted to keep his entire collection of almost 2500 pieces and 7000 bookplates together and left it to Château de Saumur which the local museum had recently relocated to. Upon Charles Lair's death on October 13th 1919, it took two years to restore the château's east wing and move the pieces in: the collection finally went on public display on November 28th 1922.
The quality and quantity of the bequest changed the museum's profile from covering every base to honing in on decorative arts. It also furnished and decorated the château as if it had always been a royal residence.
As part of the permanent visitor experience in the first floor galleries, this exhibition explores the history of the collection, introduces lesser-known sides to it and celebrates Charles Lair, whose generosity helped make the Château-Musée what it is today.
Regards croisés sur la guerre
Émeric Lhuisset: a contemporary look at the collections - Past exhibition
Event date : from Friday, 10 July 2020 until Sunday, 01 November 2020
Born in 1983, Émeric Lhuisset gets an artistic and geopolitical reflection on representations of war at the heart ot current armed conflicts. the artist will compare the museum's collections with his own creations, which has been already shown at the Tate Modern in London, at the Arab World institute in Paris, at the Louvre in Lens or at the Rencontres d'Arles.
Regards croisés sur la nature
Magali Lambert: different perspectives on nature - Past exhibition
Event date : from Saturday, 12 June 2021 until Sunday, 12 December 2021
Artist Magali Lambert has explored the Museum's collections and brought nature to life, placing taxidermied animals among words of art and giving them new life. With poetry and a sense of fun, the artist plays with our perception, transforming the animals into museum visitors breaking free of the contemporary diorams they are looking at.
La fabrique à cheval
Forging equine excellence - Past exhibition
Horse paraphernalia and technological artefacts. Horse paraphernalia and technological artefacts.Through three pieces of horse tack from Neolithic times tothe 19th century, the exhibition highlights the technologicaladvances which contributed to the horse’s rise in status,mapping its elevation from the position of simple workanimal to one of influence in the evolution of society.
Lumière au bout du tunnel
The light at the end of the tunnel
An underground exhibition. Amandine PeyresoubesAn underground exhibition. Amandine Peyresoubesand Maël Pinard have created a fun and interactiveexhibition to take you on an imaginary journey throughthe legends and underground spaces of the Chateau.
