The Musée des Beaux-Arts occupies a handsome building on the Place Saint-Corentin, right next to the cathedral. It holds a substantial collection spanning Flemish masters, French 17th- and 18th-century works, and a particularly strong selection of paintings from the Pont-Aven School — the movement centred on Gauguin and his circle, who worked in Brittany in the 1880s and 1890s.
The Breton and Pont-Aven collection is what makes this museum worth a visit over more generic regional galleries. There are good examples of the bold colours and flat forms that defined the Pont-Aven style, alongside portraits and landscapes of rural Breton life that double as social documents. The museum also holds drawings by Max Jacob, the Quimper-born poet and artist who moved in Picasso's Paris circle.