Mon sujet de thèse sur "La peinture à Montpellier de Sébastien Bourdon à Joseph- Marie Vien" tend à fédérer dans un premier temps les recherches qui ont été effectuées par bribes sur les peintres montpelliérains du XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Antoine Ranc (1634 - 1716), Jean de Troy (1638 - 1691), Etienne Loys (1724 – 1788) , Jean Coustou (1719 – 1791)...). Elles permettent de retracer le contexte artistique et historique du foyer culturel de la ville à travers les nombreuses commandes privées et publiques. Il est aussi intéressant de se demander s'il existe une école montpelliéraine dans laquelle la création des Académies aurait pu avoir un rôle. Enfin cette étude permettra de comprendre quelle est la place artistique de la cité montpelliéraine par rapport aux deux autres grandes provinces du sud que sont Toulouse et Marseille. / This study draws the history of painting in Montpellier in the 17th and 18th centuries, through the careers of Sébastien Bourdon (1616-1671) and Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809). Although these two masters are internationally recognized, their influences on local painting remained to be defined, just like those of three other academicians: Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743), Jean Ranc (1674 - 1735) and Jean Raoux (1677-1734). This study not only aims at analysing works by painters now famous, but also at revealing other contemporary artists as well as local workshops, which were opened to multiple influences. These workshops and artists were at the forefront of the paintings done in Montpellier up to the end of the 18th century. Some were more important than others, as those of Flemish masters at the beginning of the 17th century, of Paul Pezet ( ? – 1687) and of Antoine Ranc (1634 - 1716) during the Classical Age or even those of Etienne Loys (1724 - 1788) and Jean Coustou (1719 - 1791) in the 18th century. The latter trained the great masters from Montpellier who became academicians. This study means to define the essence of this local painting and its models. The issue of academies also partakes of our domain of research. Several attempts at creations of academic schools marked out these two centuries: be they, that of Sébastien Bourdon in 1649, that of Jean de Troy (1638-1691) in 1679, that of Jacques Giral (1684-1749) in 1737 and finally “la Société des Beaux-arts” (the Company of the Fine arts) in 1779. They are studied along with other southern academies of art, in Toulouse and Marseille. Thus, this analysis of local workshops and academies interrogates the notion of school in Montpellier, thereby registering this research at a more global scale, by comparing its results with the matching productions of other artistic centers in the same area, but also of Parisian and European great masters.