A museum featuring thousand of histories

The Léon-Dierx museum was founded in 1911 in Saint-Denis along the site of the former Manès villa previously occupied by the bishop.  Let's head for a guided tour.    

Léon Dierx was a modest poet and painter.  The one who was crowned as Prince of poets by his peers in 1898 had never wanted the museum to bear his name in his lifetime. He died in 1912. 

Today, the museum houses some of his paintings.  Mostly landscapes of the riversides.   The legend says that Léon Dierx began to paint when he was losing his sight to be able to engrave the sceneries forever on his memory.  Hence, the museum boasts a real historical collection but exhibits more contemporary works as well. 

A pleasant stroll

The Léon-Dierx museum also implies a pleasant stroll: each painting features a particular history.  For example, the self-portrait of Adèle Ferrand has been cherished above all by his son, François de Kerveguen.  The latter has never seen her mother who died when he was barely one year old.  In his turn before dying, he donated the self-portrait to the museum to ensure her immortality, the works of the museum being inalienable.        

As for Adolphe Leroy, he painted dawns and dusks, because it was during these times that he let his imagination soar to his art.  His peculiarity lies to the fact that these local landscapes do not exist.  Because he accurately portrayed the mountains of Réunion Island and as far as the other details are concerned, he gave free reign to his imagination.   

Other artists are equally mischievous: one may spot a child-like face on a painting entitled, "La couseuse."    

Another treasure of the museum: the Paul and Virginia collection.  There are many representations of this famous romance.  The main one is the image of the beautiful Virginia who heaved a last sigh along the ocean, after a dreadful shipwreck.        

Virginia died, but another adventure is already starting through another painting. 

The visitors of the Léon-Dierx museum only need to look at the paintings to know about their story...