WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT THE MONTREAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

 Founded in 1860, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is the oldest art museum in Canada and a leading museum in North America. Its collection showcases Québec and Canadian heritage and international art from a critical and intercultural perspective and comprises some 45,000 paintings, sculptures, graphic artworks, photographs, multimedia installations, and decorative art objects dating from antiquity to the present. The MMFA’s exhibitions span every discipline from archaeology to fine arts, to contemporary practices. Laid out over five interconnecting pavilions, the Museum complex includes over 80 exhibition galleries, the Bourgie concert hall, an auditorium and movie theatre, the Boutique and Bookstore, an in-house publishing department, a public sculpture garden and the Michel de la Chenelière International Atelier for Education and Art Therapy. A pioneering museum in the provision of art therapy, the MMFA works with the community, education, health and technology sectors to give all people exposure to art through inclusive and enriching experiences. 

The Museum is closed on Mondays, opens on Tuesday, Thursday-Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm, and Wednesday from 10 am to 9 pm. Admission to the Museum is $24 for guests 31 and over, for guests Ages 21 to 30 - $16 and admission is free for people 20 and under. The best day to visit the museum is on Wednesdays, at nights, admission is $12 for people 21 and over and guests 20 and under get in free. On the first Sunday of every month, the Museum grants free admission.

Pavillions

The museum is partitioned into five pavilions: a 1912 Beaux Arts building designed by William Sutherland Maxwell and brother Edward Maxwell, now named the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion; the modernist Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion across the street, designed by Moshe Safdie, built-in 1991; the Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion, the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion built 2011 and recently inaugurated the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace. The Desmarais Pavilion houses a modern and contemporary art collection, the Hornstein's focus is specifically archaeology and ancient art; the Lilian and David M. Stewart are devoted to decorative arts and design. Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavillion houses Quebec and Canadian art, and the new Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace is the home of the international art collection. With the addition of a fifth pavilion, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts occupies a surface area of 53,095 square meters, 13,000 square meters of which is dedicated to exhibition space. The expansion will make it the eighteenth-largest art museum in North America.

Collections

The Museum’s rich collections are divided into six major sections distributed among the five pavilions of the Museum complex. Each of them focuses on a key area of the holdings. Explore collections such are the International Contemporary Art, Earty to modern international art, Quebec and Canadian art, Decorative Art and Design, Arts of One World, Graphic Arts, and the Sculpture Garden. The Museum’s collections were thoroughly studied and given a major reinstallation in 2001 as well as in 2011, prior to the opening of the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art, and again in 2016, with the inauguration of the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace. The new pavilions have enabled visitors to enjoy enhanced views of thousands of works in spectacular exhibition spaces. 

In 1892, John W. Tempest bequeathed sixty oil paintings and watercolor paintings as well as a trust fund for the purchase of works of art. This was the main source of income for the museum's acquisition of European paintings until the 1950s. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the large art collections owned by many prominent Montreal families became dispersed through shared inheritance. However, some heirs made large donations to the museum, such as members of the Drummond, Angus, Van Horne, and Hosmer families, among others. In 1927, a collection of over 300 objects, including 150 paintings, was donated by the descendants of Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal. 

In 1917, the Art Association of Montreal created a department devoted to the decorative arts. The department was entrusted to Frederick Cleveland Morgan, who became the curator of the collection on a voluntary basis from 1917 until his death in 1962. Morgan added more than 7,000 pieces in the form of acquisitions, bequests or donations to the museum's collection. He also expanded the mandate of the museum, from an institution dedicated solely to the fine arts to an encyclopedic museum, open to all forms of art. Since 1955, the museum gained the acquisition funds it needed to buy Canadian or foreign works from the legacy of Horsley and Annie Townsend. Several gifts and bequests are made by the heirs or descendants of the collectors who founded the Art Association. Other donations come from new donors such as Joseph Arthur Simard, who in 1959 offered a collection of 3,000 Japanese incense boxes that belonged to the French statesman Georges Clemenceau. n 1960, the centennial of the founding of the Art Association of Montreal was highlighted by the publication of a catalog of selected works from the collection and a museum guide.

On September 4, 1972, a major theft took place at the museum. Fifty objects were taken including eighteen paintings, including works by Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Eugène Delacroix that were never recovered. Major contributions have been made by Renata and Michal Hornstein since the 1970s. These have included works by Old Masters, as well as several of the largest collections of drawings of the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler.  These gifts expanded the range of the museum's collections, and reached a peak in 2000, with admission of the modern design collection assembled by Liliane M. Stewart and David M. Stewart, long a part of the Montreal Decorative Arts Museum and exhibited at the MMFA from 1997 to 2000. Liliane M. Stewart donated over 5,000 objects to the museum's collection.

On display in the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace, inaugurated in 2016, it is a powerful, in-depth reflection of the highlights of civilization. The works of the Hornstein gift, as well as Ben Weider’s Napoleonic collection, have been incorporated into the existing collection both chronologically and thematically, in a fluid and logical manner, in the pavilion’s presentation of 750 international artworks on four levels. The Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace was named in honor of these generous benefactors, a couple who survived the Holocaust and made Montreal their home. Major Quebec and Canadian philanthropists, their exceptional gift to the MMFA of one hundred Old Master paintings, which considerably enriched its collection of international art, is the largest private donation made to a Quebec museum in modern history.

TripAdvisor Recommended

According to TripAdvisor, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is the 6th most popular attraction in Montreal; it has a 4.5-star rating out of over 4,500 reviews. The MMFA is one of Canada’s most visited museums and the eighth-most visited museum in North America, boasting more than 1.3 million visitors. The MMFA's original temporary exhibitions combine various artistic disciplines – fine arts, music, film, fashion, and design – and are exported around the world. Its rich encyclopedic collection, distributed among five pavilions, includes international art, world cultures, decorative arts and design, and Quebec and Canadian art. The MMFA complex includes Bourgie Hall, a 460-seat concert hall. The Museum also houses the Michel de la Chenelière International Atelier for Education and Art Therapy, the largest educational complex in a North American art museum, enabling the MMFA to offer innovative educational, wellness, and art therapy programs. A Trip to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a must if you have spare time on your hands, as it is a great way to speed a couple of hours.