NB the exhibition is postponed due to the ongoing lockdown in Germany. The exhibition is now scheduled to open 8 March 2020. Please refer to the museum website for the latest information.

Chambre Privée. Flemish Masterpieces from a Collector’s Living Room is the title of a small exhibition in the fireplace room of the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum. The concept of the exhibition is to give the visitor a “view through the keyhole” into the private sphere of a collector, namely into his living room. This will play a major role in the design of the exhibition: On a photo canvas, the collector’s living room is “transported” into the fireplace room.  The private rooms are thus made visible to the visitor for a period of three months, giving them an insight into how a collector lives with his art at home.

The series of exhibitions started in 2018 with the living room of a private collector with exclusively Flemish and Dutch paintings. His initial inspiration to collect came from a still life exhibition in Münster in 1979, which left such a lasting impression on the collector that he himself began to acquire Flemish and Dutch still life paintings in particular, but later also landscapes, thus steadily building up his collection. He placed particular emphasis on the high quality of the pictures and continues to work closely with art historians and dealers. He owns masterpieces of high quality, from Jan Brueghel the Elder, Ambrosius Bosschaert, Adriaen van de Venne, Pieter Claesz., Willem Claesz. Heda to Frans Snyders, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan van Goyen, Nicolaes Berchem or Salomon van Ruysdael. The result is the living room as it looks today: a walk-in still life and, at the same time, a realisation of the 91-year-old collector’s vision, who sadly passed away in 2019.

After the Flemish paintings, which were exhibited in 2018, the Dutch part of the collection with 12 masterpieces will be shown from 18 January -18 April 2020. The exhibition will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue. For more information you can visit the museum’s website.