Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

The Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille (Lille Palace of Fine Arts) is a municipal museum dedicated to fine arts, modern art, and antiquities. It is one of the largest art museums in France.

Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille
Location within Lille
Established1809
LocationPlace de la République, 59000 Lille, France
Coordinates50.630353°N 3.062906°E / 50.630353; 3.062906
TypeArt gallery
Visitors239,975 (2007)
DirectorBruno Girveau
Websitepba-lille.fr

It was one of the first museums built in France, established under the instructions of Napoleon I at the beginning of the 19th century as part of the popularisation of art. Jean-Antoine Chaptal's decree of 1801 selected fifteen French cities (among which Lille) to receive the works seized from churches and from the European territories occupied by the armies of Revolutionary France. The painters Louis Joseph Watteau and François Watteau, known as the "Watteau of Lille", were heavily involved in the museum's beginnings - Louis Joseph Watteau made in 1795 the first inventory of the paintings confiscated during the Revolution, whilst his son François was deputy curator of the museum from 1808 to 1823.

The museum opened in 1809 and was initially housed in a church confiscated from the Récollets before being transferred to the city's town hall. In 1866, the "musée Wicar", formed from the collection of Jean-Baptiste Wicar, was merged into the Palais des Beaux-Arts. Construction of the Palais's current Belle Époque-style building began in 1885 under the direction of Géry Legrand, mayor of Lille, and it was completed in 1892. The architects chosen to design the new building were Edouard Bérard (1843–1912) and Fernand Etienne-Charles Delmas (1852–1933) from Paris. The building is located on the place de la République, in the center of the city, facing the préfecture of Lille. It was renovated during the 1990s and reopened in 1997.

At the start of the 1990s, the building's poor state and the moving of Vauban's relief models of fortified towns to Lille forced the town to renovate the building. Work began in 1991, under the architects Jean-Marc Ibos and Myrto Vitart, and was completed in 1997. This allowed the creation of a new 700 m2 basement room for temporary exhibitions, as well as departments for the relief models and for 19th-century sculpture. Overall the museum covers 22000 m2 and held 72430 pieces as of 2015, one of the largest provincial collections of fine art. The collection includes works by Raphael, Donatello, Van Dyck, Tissot, Jordaens, Rembrandt, Goya, El Greco, David, Corot, Courbet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Delacroix, Rubens, Rodin, Claudel and Jean-Baptiste Chardin.

Collections

Antiquities, Middle Ages and Renaissance
Ascension of the Elect by Dirk Bouts.
  • Ascension of the Elect, Dirk Bouts, oil on wood (c 1450)
  • Fall of the Damned, Dirk Bouts, oil on wood (c 1450)
  • Portrait of man, skull in a niche, Barthel Bruyn, oil on wood
  • Three donors with Saint John the Baptist, Barthel Bruyn the Younger, oil on wood
  • The Virgin and the Sleeping Jesus, Joos van Cleve, oil on wood (16th century)
  • The Virgin nursing the Infant Jesus, Joos van Cleve, oil on wood (16th century)
  • Christ blessing the Virgin, Jacob Cornelisz van Amsterdam, oil on wood (16th century)
  • The Virgin, the Infant Jesus and saint Cecilia, Domenico Panetti
  • Trinity, triptych of Marchiennes, Jean Bellegambe, oil on wood (c 1510)
  • Triptych of the mystic bath, Jehan Bellegambe, oil on wood (1510)
  • Feast of Herod, Donatello, marble (vers 1435)
  • Vanity, Jan Sanders van Hemessen, oil on wood (c 1535-1540)
  • Virgin and Child surrounded by angels, Master of the foliage in embroidery, triptych, oil on wood (c 1495-1500)
  • Portraits of Louis de Quarre and Barbe de Cruysinck as donors ; saint Barbara and saint Louis on foot under arcades, Master of the foliage in embroidery, oil on wood (c 1495-1500)
  • The Virgin in glory amidst the apostles, Master of the Lyversberg Passion, oil on wood (c 1460-1480)
  • Adoration of the Shepherds, Maîster of the Lille Adoration, oil on wood (1520)
  • Preaching of saint John the Baptist, Master of the Lille Preaching, oil on wood (1530–1540)
  • Vierge au lait, Maître des Madones mosanes, marble (c 1350)
  • Adoration of the Magi, Maître MS, oil on wood (c 1506-1510)
  • Saint Dorothea and Saint Mary Magdalen, Master of saint-Séverin, two panels, oil on wood (1480–1520)
  • Noli me tangere, Lambert Sustris (1548-1560)
  • The Resurrection and La Vierge du rosaire, anonymous, South German, oil on wood (c 1480-1490)
  • Adoration of the Magi, anonymous, triptych, oil on wood (c 1510-1520)
  • Saint Henri and saint Cunégonde, saint Jerome and a bishop saint, predella of the retable of saint George, anonymous, Tyrol, oil on wood (c 1520)
  • Saint John the Baptist and saint Catherine, anonymous, German, oil on wood (16th century)
  • Saint Barbara and two saints, anonymous, German, oil on wood (16th century)
  • Sketch for Paradise, Veronese, oil on wood

17th-century paintings
Descent from the Cross by Rubens
The Liberality of the King by Jan van den Hoecke - Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens.
The Providence of the King by Jan van den Hoecke - Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens.
Allegory of the Vanities of the World by Pieter Boel

18th- and 19th-century paintings
The Kiss by Carolus-Duran
The Birth of Venus by Amaury Duval

20th-century paintings

Sculptures

Prints and drawings
  • Preparatory drawing for the "Alba Madonna". Seated man wearing a shirt, bare arms., Raphael (c 1511)

Collection of "plans-reliefs"
Plan-relief of Ath
  • Calais France, 753 x 463 cm, 1/600 scale, 6 tables (1691)
  • Charleroi Belgium, 405 x 340 cm, 1/600 scale, 4 tables (1695)
  • Ath Belgium, 480 x 378 cm, 1/600 scale, 5 tables (1697)
  • Ypres Belgium, by engineer Tessier de Derville, 944 x 548 cm, 1/600 scale, 12 tables (1698–1702)
  • Bergues France, 441 x 376 cm, 1/600 scale, 6 tables (1699)
  • Tournai Belgium, by engineer Montaigu, 654 x 580 cm, 1/600 scale, 11 tables (1701)
  • Menin Belgium, 542 x 372 cm, 1/600 scale, 6 tables (1702)
  • Bouchain France, by engineer Ladevèze, 418 x 295 cm, 1/600 scale, 5 tables (1715)
  • Lille France, by engineer Nicolas de Nézot, 440 x 400 cm, 1/600 scale, 7 tables, paper, silk and wood (1740–1743)
  • Aire-sur-la-Lys France, by engineer Nicolas de Nézot, 590 x 467 cm, 1/600 scale, 15 tables, paper, silk and wood (1743)
  • Audenarde Belgium, by engineer Nicolas de Nézot, 548 x 416 cm, 1/600 scale, 11 tables, paper, silk and wood (1747)
  • Namur Belgium, by engineer Larcher d'Aubencourt, 776 x 650 cm, 1/600 scale, 22 tables (1747–1750)
  • Maastricht Netherlands, by engineer Larcher d'Aubencourt, 689 x 580 cm, 1/600 scale, 13 tables (1752)
  • Gravelines France, by engineer Lusca, 460 x 373 cm, 1/600 scale, 7 tables, paper, silk and wood (1756)
  • Avesnes France, 753 x 525 cm, 1/600 scale, 18 tables (1824–1826)

Curator, director of the Palais des Beaux-Arts
  • Bruno Girveau (present)
  • Alain Tapié
  • Arnaud Brejon de Lavergnée
  • Albert Châtelet

Expositions temporaires

Bibliography
  • Le Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille par Alain Tapié, Marie-Françoise Bouttemy, Annie Castier, et Dominique Delgrange aux éditions Réunion des musées nationaux, ISBN 2-7118-5222-9
  • Les Plans en relief des places fortes du Nord : dans les collections du Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille by Isabelle Warmoes, ISBN 2-85056-838-4
  • Catalogue des dessins italiens : Collection du Palais des beaux-arts de Lille, aux éditions Réunion des musées nationaux, ISBN 2-7118-3392-5
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