The main focus of Montauban is this fine arts museum, which centres on the work of the neoclassical painter (and accomplished violinist) Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, who was born in Montauban in 1780. Inspired by Poussin and David, Ingres became one of the most celebrated portrait painters of his day, and the museum houses many of his key works alongside old masters such as Tintoretto, Van Dyck and Gustave Courbet.
The entry ticket also admits you to the nearby Histoire Naturelle (natural history), Terroir (local costumes and traditions) and Résistance et Déportation (with mementoes of WWII) museums.
Another Ingres masterpiece, Le Vœu de Louis XIII, depicting the king pledging France to the Virgin, hangs in Montauban's 18th-century Cathédrale Notre Dame de l'Assomption .
