Museum tour through Neuchâtel

Léopold and Aurèle Robert

from 13 May to 12 November 2023

The Neuchâtel Museum of Art and History and the La Chaux-de-Fonds Museum of Art are jointly presenting a monographic exhibition at two locations dedicated to Léopold Robert and his brother Aurèle Robert (1805-1871). The exhibition examines the role of Aurèle, on the one hand as a «disseminator» of Léopold's work, and on the other as an artist in his own right. The exhibition focuses on Léopold Robert's unfinished cycle Saisons, as well as works from the two institutions and some remarkable loans. The exhibition in Neuchâtel focuses on «Summer» and «Winter». Following on from these masterpieces, it looks at other themes such as the production and distribution of the works or the concept of ideal beauty.

Special exhibition

New special exhibition until 15 October 2023: "Between Two Waters. La Tène Place of Remembrance".

Did you know that Friedrich Dürrenmatt was not only a renowned writer but also a talented painter? Or that the German-speaking Swiss lived in Neuchâtel for almost 40 years and also died there? You can find out all this and much more at the Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel.

An offbeat look at our world

The sometimes curious exhibitions of the Ethnographic Museum Neuchâtel take you on a journey between the "Here" and the "Elsewhere". As a place of experience, seeing and experiencing, the museum enables its visitors to reflect on and reinterpret the familiar. This means seeing the world through different eyes.

After two years of renovation work, the Ethnographic Museum reinvents itself and presents its collection from a new perspective. The rooms show eight contrasting perspectives in relation to the collection, museum history and ethnology, and in doing so find their way back again and again to current issues. The makers remind us that the meaning of objects changes constantly over time and in the way they are viewed. 

In the footsteps of the celebrated writer and philosopher

The Espace Rousseau Neuchâtel takes visitors on a journey through the life and work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the 18th century. Bringing together new technologies and original archive material, the exhibition provides a better understanding of the writer’s life and his influence up to the present day. The Espace Rousseau includes original manuscripts, portraits and even a herbarium.
Visitors can also discover pieces of music composed by the writer.
Acknowledged as being of worldwide importance, the Jean-Jacques Rousseau archives have been listed since 2011 in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register and are now being conserved for the benefit of mankind.

Free entry.

Both the main exhibition texts and the film are available in French, German and English. The accompanying brochure, also produced in those three languages, can be taken away by visitors as a souvenir of their time in Neuchâtel.

Most museums are closed on Mondays.
The Espace Rousseau is open on Mondays and closed on Sundays. The Centre Dürrenmatt is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The museums are also closed over the Christmas and New Year holidays. 

Find out in advance about the exact opening hours of the individual museums.