By John P. O'Neill

The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille is domestic to at least one of the main striking artwork collections in France, other than the museums of Paris, however it is little recognized, and its treasures have remained mostly unstudied. initially a part of a community of nearby museums demonstrated in 1801 through Napoleon, via a fortuitous blend of old situations, its geographical situation, and the intercession of a handful of committed buyers and proficient curators over the subsequent century, the Musée des Beaux-Arts has developed into one of many top French paintings museums. Its wonderful late-nineteenth-century construction is at the moment present process renovation—an occasion that has supplied The Metropolitan Museum of artwork with a distinct chance to borrow a variety of Lille's most vital work and drawings and to offer them to the yankee public. This quantity, which enhances that exhibition, is the 1st scholarly e-book in a long time to be dedicated to the historical past of the Lille museum and to its collections.

The approximately 100 artworks incorporated spotlight over 40 of the museum's celebrated work and approximately fifty examples from its striking drawings cupboard. Peter Paul Rubens and different Flemish painters are good represented simply because Lille used to be a Flemish urban until eventually 1667, while it used to be recaptured by means of France—Ruben's nice Descent from the go used to be ordered through the Capuchin convent in Lille in 1617. significant French and Spanish work have been bought first below Napoleon after which by means of such impressive curators as Édouard Reynart, who was once Director of the Museum from 1841 to 1879. It was once Reynart who inspired the acquisition of Delacroix's newly accomplished Medea approximately to homicide Her teenagers, Jacques-Louis David's Belisarius Begging Alms, and the pair of huge canvases by means of Goya contrasting adolescence and outdated age (a element of 1 of those, Time, is reproduced at the cover). there's additionally a different portion of neighborhood Lille artists, and 5 sculptural reliefs, one in all that's by way of Donatello. some of the dazzling drawings within the Musée des Beaux-Arts have been assembled through the Lille painter Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Wicar, a scholar of David and Napoleon's agent in Florence, and left to town in 1834. not just is the gathering wealthy in examples via Raphael, Pontormo, and different Italian masters, yet one of the drawings by means of French artists are six preparatory reports, in addition to the oil comic strip, for Delacroix's Medea.

Each of the works is mentioned in an access by means of a expert on the Metropolitan Museum or the Musée des Beaux-Arts. each textual content is observed by means of a full-color replica and infrequently by means of colour info or by way of black-and-white illustrations of comparative gadgets; many are proven in colour for the 1st time. The ebook is brought via a wide ranging survey of the evolution of the trendy museum by means of the eminent French cultural historian Marc Fumaroli. this is often via an essay by way of Arnauld Brejon de Lavergne, leader Curator of the Musée des Beaux-Arts, which explores key advancements within the historical past and formation of its collections. Walter Liedtke, Curator within the division of ecu work on the Metropolitan Museum and writer of many of the entries at the Dutch, Flemish, and seventeenth-century French work, presents a complete evaluate of the entire eu work within the Lille museum. William M. Griswold, Assistant Curator within the division of Drawings on the Metropolitan Museum and writer of the vast majority of the drawings entries, provides the reader with the total scope of the drawings assortment in Lille. complete information of provenance, footnotes, exhibition background, and literature around out every one catalogue access, and, furthermore, a listing of Exhibitions, a specific Bibliography, and an Index are incorporated. even supposing addressed to an informed lay viewers, this good-looking quantity will function a regular reference paintings for artwork historians and students alike.