Between the paintings of Rubens and Goya, the comic has managed to squeeze its way into the middle of the Lille Palace of Fine Arts. With the exceptional donation of 400 works by the designer from Lille
Francois Boucq, the comic book enters the permanent collection of the Lille museum. A first in France in an environment that is struggling to open up to what is called the ninth art. Passionate about comics from a young age,
Bruno Girveau Is also the director of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, where he wanted to dust off the ambient classicism.
“Museums have a strange relationship with comics. We consider that it has its museum in Angoulême and that is enough. It is generally considered that Fine Arts museums do not have to bring in more popular forms of expression. Basically, comics can be invited for temporary exhibitions as was the case for Hergé at the Center Pompidou for example. But it never entered the permanent collections. It’s a first to bring in such a large comic book collection, ”assures Bruno Girveau.
“Knowing that my drawings are not very far from those of Raphaël or Rubens, it’s funny”
For this first, the museum director naturally thought of the Lille designer François Boucq. After two years of reflection, the artist agreed to make a large donation to the Palais des Beaux-Arts, not without emotions.
“I realized that this was the first time that comic book type design was going to fit into a national museum. And at the same time I find it normal. Having seen so many of my fellow great designers who are of the same caliber as designers like Rembrandt, Ingres or Da Vinci, I have always wondered how it was possible that they were not exhibited in a museum. And finally, it’s through me that it happens. It makes me proud but it also gives me a lot of responsibility. Knowing that my drawings are not very far from those of Raphaël or Rubens, it’s funny ”, recognizes François Boucq.
400 selected designs
So to choose what he was going to give to the museum, François Boucq opened the doors of his Lille workshop for two days to Bruno Girveau. “I let him choose a lot. I didn’t really watch what he was taking because it’s always very difficult to see things go. When they are in boxes, we don’t care because we don’t look at them. But when somebody pulls them out and says “that’s okay”, you’re like “oh shit, he’s gonna take that one”. Basically, they wanted to take a hundred drawings but in the end, they ended up taking 400. But from the moment you give, you give. We’re not going to start being stingy, ”smiles the designer.
Among the works now exhibited at the museum, François Boucq thus donated the entire boards of The magician’s wife, an album crowned with the prestigious Prize for the best comic book album in Angoulême in 1986. But the donation also includes isolated plates, humorous albums, press illustrations, nude studies and even travel watercolors. A complete panorama of the work of François Boucq who should not remain for long the only cartoonist in the museum.
The Lille museum hopes to be a pioneer
“We would like it not to be an isolated donation. We are thinking about a common thread for the future of our BD acquisition policy. It could be the graphic novel, the historical comic strip… Nothing is determined yet but we are thinking about it. And then, I would like it to make other museums want. When we created museums two hundred years ago, did we say to ourselves that there would be a single museum for painting or a single museum for sculpture? No. Comics are 100 years old and I don’t think there is material for just one museum in France. So if it can give the impetus to others, that’s good, ”hopes Bruno Girveau.