Birthplace of Jovellanos

The museum was inaugurated in 1971 in one of the most emblematic buildings of the city: the house-palace of the late sixteenth century in which the enlightened Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos was born and lived.
Its main mission is the dissemination, conservation and research of the municipal artistic heritage as well as commemorating the figure and work of Jovellanos.
The visit
The building that houses the museum is an outstanding example of an Asturian mansion according to a model in force between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. It is structured in two square lateral towers joined by a central rectangular body with an interior courtyard of access to the different rooms. The permanent exhibition offers a tour of Asturian art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as an interesting representation of the main European artistic schools of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Two of its rooms are dedicated to Jovellanos, and they exhibit furniture and personal objects as well as some pieces from his artistic collection.
Jovellanos
Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, writer, philosopher, jurist and politician, born in Gijón in 1744, was one of the most outstanding men of his time and one of the greatest representatives of the Enlightenment project in Spain. The museum, since its foundation, has been dedicated to the study, conservation and dissemination of the life and work of the enlightened man.  
Through the Jovellanos program, you can access information and publications about his life and work, as well as the Jovellanos Virtual Archive that houses a unified collection of digitizations of manuscripts from various public and private institutions and first editions.
The collection
The museum preserves the municipal art collection made up of more than 3,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, illustrations, photographs and works in new media. In its formation and development, the donations and legacies made by local collectors and artists are of particular importance, including Alberto Paquet, the Lledó-Suárez couple, Julia Alcayde and, more recently, Antonio Suárez or Rubio Camín. A selection of pieces can be seen in the Digital Network of Collections of the Museum of Spain. CER.ES
Painting
The collection of Asturian painting is conceived with the intention of bringing together significant works by artists who, from the nineteenth century to the present, were born, lived or had a relationship with our city and who, to varying degrees, achieved national projection. This allows us to offer a journey through the main prevailing styles on the art scene, from romanticism to the different conceptions of modernity.
Sculpture
The sculptural collection is based on two artists representative of the evolution of the genre at different times. On the one hand, Sebastián Miranda and his Retablo del Mar, and on the other, José María Navascués. Around these two figures, a whole series of artists who, like Amador or Rubio Camín, made sculpture their main means of expression.
 
Drawing and illustration
The origin of the museum is in the collection of drawings and sketches that Jovellanos gathered and which was destroyed during an episode of the civil war. In the spirit of the Jovellanos collection, drawings by most of the artists represented in the collection have been incorporated. In recent years, special attention has been paid to illustration and graphic design.
Photography
The photography collection of the Jovellanos Birthplace Museum specialises in those authors who have used this technique as a means of artistic expression, from pioneers such as Arturo Truán, to Asturian creators of more recent times such as Gonzalo Juanes or Cuervo-Arango.
Industrial Arts
The collection brings together an outstanding set of pieces from the glass factory ‘La Industria’ and the earthenware factory ‘La Asturiana’, the main manufactures installed in Gijón during much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Bibliographic and Documentary Collection
This collection brings together documentation related to both the permanent collection and the figure of Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos and his historical context.
Antonio Martín Documentation Centre
Linked to the Municipal Museums of Fine Arts, it specialises in two thematic areas: the figure of Jovellanos and the history of art, paying special attention to painting and sculpture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and Asturian art. Made up of more than 74,000 references, including the Artists’ Archive, it is aimed at researchers, students and users in general interested in the subjects of its collections.