The story
In Flers the town hall and the museum share one address, a château set in its park. The older wing, with bell-shaped roofs topped by small lanterns, was built in the 16th century for Nicolas de Grosparmy, lord of Flers. The classical front with its grand flight of steps was added in the 18th century by Ange-Hyacinthe de la Motte-Ango. After the Revolution the estate passed to the Comte de Redern and then to the Schnetz family, until in 1901 the mayor, Julien Salles, bought it for the town.
Salles also shaped what hangs inside. When he died he left Flers his own collection of 19th-century paintings, and today the museum counts around 300 paintings among nearly 4,000 objects. The best-known is Gustave Caillebotte's Boulevard Haussmann in the Snow, painted around 1880, a view of the Paris avenue where the painter then lived. Landscapes by Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet's Stag in the Forest and a three-masted ship at anchor by Eugène Boudin are in the collection too, and since 2024 the permanent collection has had its own dedicated rooms.
