The name of Jean-Baptiste Wicar (1762-1834) is inseparable from that of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, both by his talent as a painter and a draughtsman, The Wicar Prize, which was awarded to young artists for its fine art collection and training. To do this, on his death in 1834, Wicar left a fortune, a workshop and part of his collection including drawings by Raphael, the relief of Donatello, the wax head, to the Lille Society of Sciences, Agriculture and Arts which gave it to the city in 1865.
Having had a successful career in Italy for some thirty years, Wicar enjoyed all the honours and his name still stands today as one of the specialists in Italian art of his time.
On a walk that will take us through several rooms of the museum, Annie de Wambrechies proposes to make you discover the richness of such a personality: the man, the artist, the collector and the inventor of the Wicar Prize.