The exhibition aims to draw attention to the traditions which unite Belgium and northern France, as depicted in sixteenth and seventeenth-century paintings. During that era, the former Low Countries, including Lille and Belgium, were plagued by the Eighty Years’ War, sieges, plundering, religious disagreements, political rivalries, plagues, famines, and other tragedies. Festivities became a means of social escape. “Celebrating becomes a way of forming a society,” including men, women, children, the elderly, beggars, and the powerful, summarizes the Lille institution.

To highlight this shared heritage, the exhibition will feature a hundred paintings, drawings, and engravings depicting village fairs, court celebrations, weddings, and other urban ceremonies. It will also include unique objects, such as beer jugs, drink coolers, and a head of the Antwerp giant, Druon Antigoon.

The Louvre has lent seven works for the Lille exhibition, including Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Beggars. Jacob Jordaens’s The King Drinks is among the exceptional paintings traveling from the RMFAB to Lille. Additionally, the Belgian KMSKA will lend pieces such as a sketch of The Triumphal Chariot of Kallo by Peter Paul Rubens. The MAS in Antwerp, the Royal Museum of Art and History, and the Royal Library of Belgium will also contribute to the exhibition.

The exhibition is co-produced by the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille and the Grand Palais RMN, as part of the seventh edition of lille3000. It benefits from an exceptional partnership with the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the Louvre Museum, Paris.

The exhibition is jointly organized by Blaise Ducos, head of Flemish and Dutch paintings at the Louvre, and Sabine van Sprang, curator of Flemish painting from 1550-1650 at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, in association with Juliette Singer, director of the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille and the Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse.