From the museum website, 2 June 2009
This exhibition is in follow-up to La naissance des genres (2005-2006), and it similarly has two objectives. On the one hand, it will present a part of the Museum’s collection that is as important as it is little known: a selection of Flemish and Dutch paintings from the 16th to the 18th centuries that have been treated for purposes of conservation and restoration, and of which the catalogue raisonné will be published on the same occasion. On the other hand, it will illustrate a consequential phenomenon that first emerged during this period in the former Low Countries: the rapid expansion of the art market. With different sections devoted to what were then perfectly constituted categories, the display will highlight the new development’s principal characteristics as well as the predilection of Geneva collectors for Dutch paintings of the Siècle d’Or.