Antoine-Lécuyer Museum

The Antoine Lécuyer Museum of Fine Arts, located in Saint-Quentin, houses a set of pastels by Maurice Quentin de La Tour and a collection of works and art objects. In order to present the studio collection of Quentin de La Tour in a dignified and specific place, the Picard banker Antoine Lécuyer, bequeathed his collections in 1876 as well as a place and funds intended to receive and exhibit the works. The development of the museum was undertaken under the direction of the architect Charles-Napoléon Pinguet: the Antoine-Lécuyer Museum was inaugurated in 1886, and presented the pastels of Maurice Quentin de La Tour as well as the banker's art collections. This collection was added to another bequest made to the city of Saint-Quentin in 1881-1883, that of the brothers Félix and Josias Le Sérurier, also from that city. The building was almost totally destroyed during the First World War during a bombing but the works, sheltered, are preserved. On the model of an eighteenth-century Parisian mansion, the Hanover Pavilion, it was rebuilt between 1928 and 1932 by Paul Bigot, architect winner of the Prix de Rome, to highlight the works of the pastellist. It was another banker and philanthropist, David David-Weill, who, as president of the Society of Friends of the Museum of La Tour, collaborated in the reconstruction and reopening of this museum.

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