From Monet to Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley, the luminaries of Impressionism are lining the walls of MUba Eugène-Leroy, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tourcoing (northern France), until June 24, as part of the "Peindre la Nature" ("Painting Nature") exhibition. "We truly appreciate this gift," said Mélanie Lerat, the museum's director, her eyes gleaming. The gift consists of no fewer than 58 works on loan from the Musée d'Orsay, which, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, is touring its impressive collections throughout France.
Edouard Manet's famous Le Balcon (The Balcony, 1868-1869) has been sent to Bordeaux, and his no less famous Le Fifre (The Fifer, 1866) to Montpellier. Claude Monet's La Pie (The Magpie, 1868-1869) has been flown to Clermont-Ferrand, while Gustave Caillebotte's Partie de Bateau (A Boating Party, 1878), a national treasure acquired in 2023 for the princely sum of €43 million thanks to the patronage of the LVMH group, is docking in Nantes.
A total of 178 works are being sent to some 30 cities, a first in the museum's history. "We're playing along," said Christophe Leribault, the former president (2021-2024) of Orsay, now at the helm of the Château de Versailles. "The idea was for each museum to get the work it wanted."
It was Tourcoing, however, that hit the jackpot. The pas de deux between the northern town and the Parisian museum began long before the great Impressionist event was put together. The first exchanges date back to 2019. Gérald Darmanin – the Minister of Public Action and Accounts at the time – convinced the then-president of Orsay, Laurence des Cars, to set up a partnership with the MUba in Tourcoing. Darmanin had been mayor of the town from 2014 to 2017, before relinquishing the position due to dual mandate regulations.
The current interior minister knows that he owes his political rise to his victory in the 2014 municipal elections, which tipped the former socialist stronghold to the right. He is also aware that national stature comes from local success. The elected official always returns to his home turf, convinced that he can distinguish between what works and what doesn't, including in cultural matters.
Writing in the regional daily La Voix du Nord in 2018, Darmanin delivered this blunt assessment: "Tourcoing has never been able to choose between Le Fresnoy [both a center for teaching and disseminating contemporary arts], Le Grand Mix [a concert hall], the museum, the Atelier Lyrique... And so it hasn't forged its own identity." When he took the helm in 2014, he set out to make his mark by confronting the cultural status quo.
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