Frommer's Review
Toward the southern end of the Parc des Champs-de-Bataille (Battlefields Park), just off the Grande-Allée and a half-hour walk or a short bus ride from the Haute-Ville, the Musée du Québec (as it's known in shorthand) is the city's major art museum. It occupies two buildings, one a former prison, linked together by a soaring glass-roofed "Grand Hall" housing the reception area, a stylish café, and a shop.
The original 1933 Gérard-Morisset Pavilion houses much of the permanent collection -- the largest aggregation of Québécois art in North America, filling eight galleries with works from the beginning of the colony to the present. The museum tilts to the modern in addition to the indigenous; there's a permanent exhibition of works by famed Québec abstract expressionist/surrealist Jean-Paul Riopelle. Included is his L'Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg, a triptych made up of 30 individual paintings that include spray-painted ghosts of birds and handyman tools. The museum acquired in 2005 the important Inuit art collection assembled over many years by Québécois Raymond Brousseau. Much of the work has been produced in the last 20 years, and about 300 works from the 2,635-piece collection are on display. Look for the small whimsical statue called Woman Pulling Out Grey Hairs.
The second building is the 1867 Charles-Baillairgé Pavilion, a former prison, which in the 1970s became a youth hostel nicknamed the "Petite Bastille." One cellblock has been left intact as an exhibit. Make sure to keep climbing until you get to the tower room; it's the highest point in the museum, a small widow's walk accessible only by spiral staircase. In addition to housing the massive wooden sculpture of a body in motion by Irish artist David Moore, it offers terrific views of the city in every direction. There are several spots in the museum focused on children, including a craft projects room. An accomplished café-restaurant serves table d'hôte lunches Monday through Friday, brunch on Saturday and Sunday, and dinner Wednesday evenings.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
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planning your trip.
