Created in 1856, this museum, located in Antoine Lécuyer’s former townhouse, owes its fame to the prestigious collection of pastels executed by Quentin de La Tour (1704-1788), official portraitist to Louis XV. This brilliant artist, who was born and died in Saint-Quentin, displayed a technique and a degree of perfection rarely found in this golden age of pastel portraiture. Portraits of some of the major figures of French society in the 18th century hang side by side in this museum, which the Goncourt brothers called “the Pantheon of Louis XV’s century”.