Every year, the Villa Montebello Museum hosts major exhibitions highlighting groups of artists or a particular artist.
These exhibitions are an opportunity to discover a variety of works and to immerse themselves in the creative world of these artists, whether emerging or already established.
Whether you are passionate about art or simply curious, don't miss these unmissable events which highlight the richness and diversity of artistic creation!
Villa Montebello, a museum of seaside art and history
Built in 1865 by the architect Jean-Louis Célinsky de ZarembaVilla Montebello has been home to 1972 The museum's collections. A true testament to the seaside history of Trouville-sur-Mer, it preserves and displays a rich diversity of works and objects: paintings, posters, lithographs, drawings, manuscripts, objects and clothing.
The collections are structured around two major themes:
- la birth of sea bathing ;
- le development of resort tourism on the Côte Fleurie, a source of inspiration for artists from the 19th century to the present day.
Museum of Seaside Art and History, the Villa Montebello Museum particularly highlights the Gallery, through works by painters, draftsmen and engravers, from the romantic discoverers to the artists of the 20th century.
The collections also include numerous creations byrenowned poster artistsincluding the famous Raymond Savignac, adopted resident of Trouville and key figure in 20th century advertising posters.
Current Exhibition: Meteorological Beauties
From Saturday, October 17, 2026 to Sunday, January 3, 2027, the Villa Montebello museum is dedicating an exhibition to the skies represented by artists, from the 19th century to today: "Meteorological Beauties: the skies of Trouville, from Boudin to today".
In fair weather or rain, painters have always been fascinated by light and its variations, by its reflections on water or on the shimmering garments of bathers. From the arrival of the Romantics on the Normandy coast to the present day, the sky—sunny, cloudy, overcast, or wet—offers an infinite variety of colors and inspiring landscapes. This exhibition, through a rich selection of works from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, traces how the sky and its meteorological whims have fueled artistic inspiration for nearly two centuries.
Rather than a chronological arrangement, the exhibition is organized around meteorological atmospheres: sunsets, rain, the fine weather of Normandy—that patch of blue sky dotted with grey-white clouds so characteristic of the region—or even storms. This juxtaposition of generations reveals the enduring fascination with skies, particularly by the sea.
The public will thus be able to discover the works of Eugène Boudin, Charles Mozin, Félix Buhot, Eugène Isabey, Jacques Leudet, Jean-Baptiste Sécheret, Jean Dries, Robert Surcouf, André Hambourg, Olivier Mériel, Pierre Chapuis, Jules Héreau, Jules Noël, Félix Oudart, Fernand Truffaut, Maxime Lalanne, Lucien Coutaud, Krystyna Kaminska and Jacques Pasquier, mixing genres and media — paintings, engravings, lithographs and photographs.
Among the highlights of the exhibition, Eugène Isabey's Marine, les Écores, Trouville (1839) unfolds all the lyricism of nascent Romanticism against a blazing sunset sky over the Touques River—an artistic revolution that, on this Normandy coast, saw painters abandon their Parisian studios for the grandeur of nature. André Hambourg's Beau temps à Trouville, on the other hand, captures the oppressive midday heat on the fine sandy beach, where the sun, flooding the upper half of the canvas, becomes the subject of the painting itself. As for Félix Buhot, in Un grain (1874), he chooses a rare moment, seldom depicted by his contemporaries—the moment when the wind rises and the rain abruptly drives the vacationers from the beach—far removed from conventional seaside imagery.
The exhibition also transcends the boundaries between techniques and arts: paintings and engravings are displayed alongside photographs and pastels, but also music, with Le Miracle de la tempête, a very expressive piece composed by Édouard Devernay, organist of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in Trouville-sur-Mer from 1912 to 1952, which takes the listener alongside the fishermen facing the dangers of the storm.
The museum's exceptional location, housed in the Villa Montebello, also serves as a reminder that a 19th-century seaside villa was primarily designed, during the frequent social gatherings held there, as an invitation to gaze at the sea. On the cusp of climate change, whose meteorological upheavals are already being felt, "Meteorological Beauties" reveals the timeless nature of this fascination with the sky, particularly when it is changeable and capricious, as in Trouville.
Opening days and hours
- From March 29 to May 31, 2026 and from October 1, 2026 to January 4, 2027:
- Monday to Friday from 14 a.m. to 17:30 a.m.
- Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and every day during school holidays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 14 p.m. to 17:30 p.m.
- From June 1 to September 30, 2026:
- Every day from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 14 p.m. to 17:30 p.m.
Prices and tickets
The entrance fee includes access to the permanent collections and temporary exhibitions of the Villa Montebello Museum.
- Full price: € 8,00
- Reduced price *: 4,00 €
The tariff reduced* is granted to those under 18, students, teachers, job seekers, large families, holders of the Côte Fleurie Heritage Pass, journalists, groups (more than 10 people) and for everyone when access to a floor of the museum is not possible.
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