The Vendôme Pavilion, was built beginning in 1665, at the request of Louis de Mercoeur, Duke of Vendôme. Mercoeur, the grandson of Henry IV and Gabriel d'Estrées, was appointed governor of Provence in 1652. In the mid-18th century, the painter Jean-Baptiste Van Loo turned the pavilion into his studio. The superb baroque Atlas figures and the facade's classical order make it an architectural flagship of Aix's cultural heritage, halfway between Paris et Rome. An enlightened amateur, Henri Dobler, acquired it in 1906. He bequeathed the building and a part of its collections to the city of Aix-en-Provence to transform it into a museum. Guided by the will to broaden its horizons and widen its audience, this place teeming with history, this museum recreating the atmosphere and taste of the 17th and 18th centuries, also knows how to exhibit today's art. The Vendôme Pavilion has taken a special interest in the innovation offered by new technologies. It regularly collaborates with the Tapestry Museum (with which it shares administrative duties, exhibition planning and management)And has, on occasion, also worked with the Ecole d'Art d'Aix to present American digital photography as a complement to its enduring interest in traditional photography. The Pavilion also has a number of resources at its disposal when the exhibition space provided by its rooms proves insufficient. Its French gardens provide a wonderful setting in which to present the work of sculptors, as was the case for the monumental oeuvre of Jean Amado in 1997. and additional exhibition rooms for larger projects can be found at the Cité du Livre possesses.