The museum was built in Quimper's main square and is facing the cathedral and adjacent to the Hôtel de Ville.

The northern schools (Flanders and Holland), well represented by the legacy of the Count of Silguy, are presented with, among others, paintings by Frans Floris, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem (‘’Le Première Famille’’, 1589, one of the masterpieces, and ‘’Adam et Eve au paradis terrestre’’, 1625), Pieter Bruegel le Jeune (‘’La Danse de noce’’), Joos de Momper, Rubens (‘’The Martyre de Sainte Lucie’’, around 1620), Jacob Jordaens (‘’Mater Dolorosa’’, 1617-1620), David Vinckboons, Frans II Francken, Jan Van Bijlert (‘’Femme et Enfant’’, around 1630), Pieter De Grebber (‘’La Vierge enseignant à lire à l'Enfant Jésus’’, around 1630), Jacques d'Arthois, Abraham Govaerts, Jan van Goyen, Jan Van Kessel, Otto Marseus van Schrieck (‘’Chardons, Ecureuil, Reptiles et Insectes’’, around 1660), Nicolaes Maes (‘’Portrait d’une Jeune Femme’’, around 1676), Ferdinand Bol, Gérard de Lairesse.

Some works of the Spanish school complete this panorama of ancient European painting, including Antonio González Velázquez a ‘’Christophe Colomb offrant le Nouveau Monde aux Rois Catholiques’’, a sketch for a fresco of the Royal Palace of Madrid.

Among these painters, one will find exhibited at the museum: Évariste-Vital Luminais, Eugène Boudin (including Noces à Quimper in 1857, work acquired in 2012), James Abbott McNeill Whistler (La Côte de Bretagne), Paul Gauguin, Paul Sérusier, Émile Bernard, Georges Lacombe, Maximilien Luce (Côte rocheuse, 1893), Maxime Maufra, Charles Camoin, Paul Ranson, Meyer de Haan or, again, Félix Vallotton, Maurice Denis and Albert Marquet.

Most of the major artists that showed styles from Rococo to Neoclassicism are: Antoine Watteau, François Lemoyne, Charles Parrocel, Jean II Restout, Edme Bouchardon, Natoire (a study on ‘’Vénus à sa toilette’’, in the Bordeaux Museum of Fine Arts), François Boucher (‘’Une Paysage et La Continence de Scipion’’, study for a command by the King of Poland never realized), Carle Van Loo (several drawings with a study for Agamemnon in the piece Sacrifice d’Iphigénie in Palace of Sanssouci in Potsdam), Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Jean-Jacques and Louis Jean François Lagrenée, Hubert Robert (with a lot of drawings), Jean-Baptiste Huet, François-André Vincent, Louis-François Cassas, François-Xavier Fabre or François Gérard.

The Italian school, of the Renaissance of the 18th century, counts some beautiful works, notably Nicolò dell'Abate, Luca Cambiaso, Domenico Piola, Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Giambattista Tiepolo, Francesco Fontebasso and Piranèse.

He signed the 8 prints under the pseudonym “Romanin” At the heart of the museum, in a specially designed space, an exceptional ensemble of Jean-Julien Lemordant’s paintings are shown.