Traits de génie

de Cordélia Hattori

The Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille houses an outstanding collection of old drawings from the legacy of Wicar. Born in 1762, a student of Jacques-Louis David, the painter Jean-Baptiste Wicar lived over thirty years in Italy. At his death in 1834, he bequeathed his entire collection of drawings in his hometown of Lille. Of these 1,300 sheets, the greatest masters are represented: Raphael, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Cranach, Dürer, Holbein and Poussin. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of John the Baptist Wicar, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille presented selected two hundred of the most beautiful designs of this collection.