Avignon celebrates the artistic legacy of Angladon and Martin

From June to August 2026, the Musée Angladon – Collection Jacques Doucet in Avignon is dedicating a major exhibition to two essential figures in its history: Jean Angladon and Paulette Martin. Under the title An artistic partnership. Jean Angladon et Paulette Martin , the exhibition pays tribute to the couple who gave rise to the museum and offers an intimate immersion in their creative and human universe.

Jean Angladon and Paulette Martin were much more than a married couple united by art. They shared a studio life, a sensitive view of creation and an uncommon artistic complicity. Painters and engravers, they developed a parallel work marked by mutual listening, constant dialogue and, on occasions, inspiration from the same motifs, always reinterpreted from personal languages and singular sensibilities. This “artistic companionship” is precisely the common thread of an exhibition that, thirty years after the opening of the museum that bears their name, returns them to the center of the story.

The exhibition is set in the same space where they lived and created: a hôtel particulier in old Avignon, now transformed into a museum thanks to their will. In this environment, Jean Angladon and Paulette Martin lived together surrounded by the treasures inherited from their great-uncle Jacques Doucet, a great couturier of the Belle Époque and patron of the avant-garde. His collection, exceptional both for the quality and for the sensitivity with which it was assembled, includes masterpieces by Sisley, Van Gogh, Modigliani, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Picasso and other fundamental names in modern art.

After the couple's death, their wish was clear: to turn their residence into a museum and open to the public both the inherited collection and the memory of their own artistic work. This legacy is materialized today in the Musée Angladon, a unique institution within the cultural panorama of Avignon, where the Jacques Doucet collection coexists with the personal imprint of his heirs. The current exhibition recovers this double dimension —that of collectors and that of creators— and presents nearly 170 works by Jean Angladon and Paulette Martin in a setting that evokes the atmosphere of their workshop and the intimacy of their creative process.

The question that looms over the exhibition is as simple as it is revealing: who were Jean Angladon and Paulette Martin really? Often remembered above all for having made the museum possible, this exhibition restores their identity as artists. At the same time, it highlights their work as heirs and transmitters of an extraordinary heritage, thanks to which Avignon today preserves a set of works of international reference.

This tribute comes at a time of renewed momentum for the institution. Gilles Muller was recently elected president of the Fondation Angladon-Dubrujeaud, succeeding Philippe Lechat. Provençal and Avignonese by adoption, Muller has expressed his desire to broaden the museum's notoriety and strengthen its projection, both nationally and internationally. His ambition is to consolidate the Angladon Museum as a "house representative of the spirit of a collection and the Avignonese art of living", and to make it a central player in the cultural appeal of the territory.

This objective is part of a line of work already initiated by Philippe Lechat, who had put on the table the need for an action and communication plan to ensure the future of an institution that lives exclusively on its own resources. The new presidency wants to deepen this strategy and work closely with the foundation teams, public representatives and cultural agents to strengthen the museum's international reputation and, with it, the Avignon brand.

Gilles Muller's profile seems to respond to this new stage. Resident in Provence for fifteen years and in Avignon for seven, he has a degree in Political Science and has developed his career in the field of professional federations linked to the art of living. At the head of his own public relations company, he has worked with creative actors and cultural institutions, and has promoted initiatives with international projection such as the Paris, Capitale de la Création campaigns. He has also chaired the European Association Museum et Industries and maintains a personal commitment to various artistic manifestations.

In this context, the exhibition dedicated to Jean Angladon and Paulette Martin takes on a special symbolic value. It is not only a review of the past, but also an affirmation of the present and future of the museum. Rediscovering its founders is, at the same time, reaffirming the uniqueness of an institution born from a passion for art, the will to share a heritage and the close union between life and creation.