National Museum of Fine Arts (Algiers)

About this place

The National Museum of Fine Arts stands on the El Hamma hillside in Algiers, above the Jardin d'Essai, and is counted among Africa's largest art museums. Its roughly 8,000 works span six centuries of European painting plus sculpture, prints, decorative arts and coins, and the country's largest Algerian art collection. Designed by Guelma-born architect Paul Guion, the Art Deco building blends medieval Islamic and ancient Mediterranean motifs; it was inaugurated on 5 May 1930, during the centenary of French rule. In 1962, shortly before independence, more than 300 works were shipped to the Louvre in Paris; most returned by the decade's end after negotiations. From 1963 artists worldwide donated works to mark independence, and the Algerian collection, about fifty works in 1962, has grown since. The upper galleries run chronologically from Flemish, Dutch, Italian and French old masters through the 19th century, the richest period, into the early 20th: Delacroix, Courbet, Degas, Renoir, Monet, Gauguin, Matisse. Bourdelle's Heracles the Archer anchors the bronze gallery, Rodin's Age of Bronze is here too, and a room holds Mohammed Racim's miniatures of old Algiers. A whole floor shows 20th-century Algerian art, including Bachir Yellès, Baya, M'hamed Issiakhem and Mohammed Khadda. Outside, sculptures line a pergola above a panoramic terrace set with historic casts. The main entrance is by Hamma metro station; allow 90 minutes to three hours. Pair it with the Jardin d'Essai below and Maqam Echahid, about 230 m west on the heights; in a straight line, the Bardo National Museum lies 2.8 km north-west and the Casbah 4.7 km north.