Director of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille and of the Hospice Comtesse, Alain Tapié holds a doctorate in art history and was curator and director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Caen from 1984 to 2003. At the same time, he was a lecturer in museology at the Ecole du Louvre and in 1993 obtained the title of chief curator of heritage. He has published numerous works on the theme of Normandy in art, including "Peindre en Normandie à l'époque impressionniste" (Somogy, 2010) and Peindre en Normandie, XIXe et XXe siècle (Imprimerie Nationale, 2001)