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Key figures

Origin and history

The Thomas Henry Museum owes its existence to a series of anonymous donations made to the city of Cherbourg between 1831 and 1835. It was later revealed that these 163 paintings and 4 bas-reliefs came from Thomas Henry, an art merchant and expert curator of royal museums under the Restoration. Wishing to educate the young Cherbourgeois in art after the loss of his two sons, he created an educational collection covering the great Western artistic movements from the 15th to the 19th century, with particular attention for the primitive Italians (such as Fra Angelico and Filippino Lippi) and the Flemish and Dutch schools. This initial fund, organized encyclopedically, was supplemented by subsequent donations, including those of Captain Troude (1844) and the sculptor Armand Le Veel, as well as works by Jean-François Millet offered by his family in 1915.

Originally housed in two halls of the city hall, the museum moved in 1983 to a new cultural centre (now the Quasar), built at the site of the old grain halls. This transfer allowed the collections to be exhibited on two levels, with a space dedicated to the arttheque and the municipal library. Between 2012 and 2016, a major renovation was undertaken to modernize spaces, improve accessibility and highlight the 400 works now presented over 1,500 m2. The museum, labeled 'Musée de France', is distinguished by its thematic diversity, ranging from troubadour painters to orientalists, including local artists such as Guillaume Fouace or Félix Buhot.

Since 2000, the museum has organized a biennial of the 9th art, honouring renowned cartoonists such as Enki Bilal, François Schuiten, or Moebius. This initiative adds to its primary purpose of preserving and disseminating an exceptional artistic heritage, including the second largest French collection of works by Jean-François Millet after that of the Musée d'Orsay. The building, designed by architect Antoine Boisroux, now incorporates a glass extension opening the museum to the city, while sheltering the national scene of the Trident. With more than 30,000 annual visitors, he confirmed his status as the third fine arts museum in Normandy by the importance of his collections.

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