François Pompon Museum (Musée François Pompon)

What you will see

Upstairs, the Pompon gallery shows his animal sculptures, with their polished forms and economy of detail. Downstairs, granite stelae from the Gallo-Roman cemetery show the dead with the tools of their trade. Other rooms hold religious art, including a 12th-century Black Virgin, and scenes of Morvan country life. A room on gastronomy recalls Alexandre Dumaine and Bernard Loiseau, who made the Côte d'Or restaurant in Saulieu famous.

History

François Pompon was born in Saulieu on 9 May 1855, the son of a joiner. He trained as a stonecutter in Dijon, then worked in Paris for other sculptors, including Auguste Rodin, whose marble studio he ran from 1893. In 1905 he chose to sculpt only animals, polishing the surfaces and removing detail. Fame came late: his White Bear caused a sensation at the Salon d'Automne of 1922.

In 1932, on a visit to his home town, Pompon chose a room in the municipal museum to hold his work. He died in Paris on 6 May 1933 and was buried in Saulieu beneath his bronze condor. The new museum opened on 22 July 1934 in the place he had chosen. It holds the Musée de France label, and a bronze Bull, unveiled in 1949, stands in the town.