Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The MUba Eugène-Leroy, formerly Museum of Fine Arts of Tourcoing, was founded in 1860 and installed in 1931 in the Roussel-Defontaine Hotel, a private hotel built in 1866 for Mayor Charles Roussel-Defontaine. This building, representative of Napoleonic architecture, was enlarged in 1930 with additional wings. The architect Charles Maillard, also designer of the town hall, drew up the plans. Purchased by the city, it was transformed into a museum with galleries and salons keeping their original style.

The museum is distinguished by its thematic approach, combining classical works (Rembrandt, Boilly), modern (Fautrier, Barré) and contemporary (Cazal, Felten-Massinger). Its permanent collections, regularly renewed, interact with temporary exhibitions. In 1994, a new shop and coffee were added. Labeled Musée de France in 2002, he owes his present name to the exceptional donation of 600 works by Eugene Leroy (1910–2000) in 2009, making this art artist from France a central figure in his scientific project.

The Roussel-Defontaine hotel, classified for its hybrid architecture (XIX and 1930s), also houses a graphic arts firm and greenhouses transformed into exhibition spaces. In 2024, the museum broke its attendance record (75,038 visitors) thanks to the exhibition Painting Nature, in partnership with the Musée d'Orsay. Since 1992, its programming combines visual and living arts, with an active policy of acquisitions for the 20th and 21st centuries.

The collections were enriched from the beginning by Charles Roussel-Defontaine, mayor and scholar, who promoted purchases and donations. The Roussel-Defontaine legacy, accepted under the mandate of Victor Hassebroucq (1861–99), allowed the museum to be installed in the galleries of the former town hall in 1866. In 1931 he moved to 2 rue Paul Doumer, in the residence of Albert Roussel (cosin of the painter Charles Roussel), before being restructured in 1993–1994 by architects Bodin and Germe.

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