The Emilio Caraffa Provincial Fine Arts Museum is an art museum in Córdoba, Argentina

Córdoba, Argentina

Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...

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Overview

The institution was established as the Provincial Fine Arts Museum by the Province of Córdoba

Córdoba Province (Argentina)

Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...

, which commissioned German Argentine architect Juan Kronfuss for its design, in 1915. Built on the western edge of the newly-inaugurated Sarmiento Park

Sarmiento Park

Sarmiento Park is the largest public park in Córdoba, Argentina.-Overview:The development of a suburb south of the rapidly growing Córdoba of the late nineteenth century created the need for an extensive new green space for the area. The new neighborhood's chief developer, Miguel Crisol,...

, the work of Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 was completed in 1916, and originally included 255 m² (2,700 ft²) and one exhibit hall, the Kronfuss Salon. The Provincial Museum was renamed in honor of local artist Emilio Caraffa

Emilio Caraffa

-Life and work:Emilio Caraffa was born in Catamarca, Argentina, in 1862. His family relocated to Rosario, where he attended the local National College , and learned to draw and sketch...

, in 1950, and new wings completed in 1962 and 2007 brought the museum's display area to 1,500 m² (17,000 ft²), distributed among nine exhibit halls.
Aside from those of its namesake, the museum maintains paintings and sculptures by other renowned local artists such as Juan Carlos Castagnino

Juan Carlos Castagnino

Juan Carlos Castagnino was an Argentine painter, architect, muralist and sketch artist.Born in the city of Mar del Plata, he studied in the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, and became a disciple of Lino Enea Spilimbergo and Ramón Gómez Cornet.By the end of the 1920s, he became a member of...

, Pablo Curatella Manes

Pablo Curatella Manes

Pablo Curatella Manes was a prolific Argentine sculptor.-Life and work:Born in La Plata in 1891 to Clara Manes, a Greek Argentine immigrant, and Antonio Curatella, from Italy, Curatella Manes first acquired an interest in sculpture during his frequent childhood visits to the newly-inaugurated La...

, Fernando Fader

Fernando Fader

Fernando Fader was a French-born Argentine painter of the Post-impressionist school.-Life and work:Fernando Fader was born in Bordeaux, France in 1882. His father, of Prussian descent, relocated the family to Argentina in 1884, settling in the western city of Mendoza before returning to France a...

, Emilio Pettoruti

Emilio Pettoruti

Emilio Pettoruti was an Argentine painter, who caused a scandal with his avant-garde cubist exhibition in 1924 in Buenos Aires. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Buenos Aires was a city full of artistic development...

, Lino Enea Spilimbergo

Lino Enea Spilimbergo

Lino Enea Spilimbergo was an Argentine artist and engraver, and he is considered to be one of the country's most important painters....

, as well as lithographs by Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...

 and paintings by Tsuguharu Foujita

Tsuguharu Foujita

was a painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings.- Education :In 1910 when he was twenty-four years old Foujita graduated from what is now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music....

 and Francisco Goya

Francisco Goya

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era...

. The museum also hosts temporary exhibits and includes the provincial art archive and restoration workshop, as well as a library and educational facilities.