Jean-Baptiste de Francqueville, Lord of Bourlon, had a mansion built between April 1719 and December 1720 in the Parisian style, with a courtyard and a garden.

The use of French fashion is explained by Jean-Baptiste de Francqueville’s position as a royal advisor and secretary in a territory newly annexed to France.

[4] The gate is adorned with sculpted elements typical of the decorative style from the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency, opening onto a wide archway with vegetal motifs in bas-relief.

This gate contrasts with the simplicity of the main building, which has three levels and alternates between brick and limestone, following the model of French classical architecture.

[5] When the wealthy industrialist Auguste Legrand bequeathed his mansion to the city of Cambrai in 1888 to display the collections of the municipal museum, the living spaces were adapted for this purpose, and a large brick salon was created to accommodate large-format works.

Among other items, the Musée de Cambrai received in 1863 forty-three pieces of Greek and Etruscan ceramics from the collection of the disgraced Italian art collector Giampietro Campana.

[9] The substantial growth of the collections led to their transfer in 1893 to the Hôtel de Francqueville, one of the most beautiful mansions built in the 18th century in Cambrai.

[Note 1] The wealthy industrialist Auguste Legrand had just bequeathed the building to the city to present the collections of the municipal museum, and the living rooms were appropriate for this function.

[11] Renovated and enlarged between 1989 and 1994 by the architects Jean-François Bodin and Thierry Germe,[12] the Cambrai museum now integrates contemporary architectural design.

The second is an osteoarchaeology section, unique in France, which presents evidence provided by human remains to understand the lives of these people and their environment.

It features 17th-century Flemish and Dutch painters, including David Teniers the Younger, Theodore Rombouts, Joos de Momper, Frans Francken, Bartholomeus van der Helst, Adam Frans van der Meulen, as well as 19th- and 20th-century artists such as Dominique Ingres, Théodore Chassériau, Eugène Boudin, Camille Claudel, Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle, François Pompon, Auguste Herbin, Maurice Utrillo, Kees van Dongen, Sonia Delaunay, Suzanne Valadon, Victor Vasarely, Henri-Eugène Le Sidaner, Geneviève Claisse, Guy de Lussigny, and others.