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Comprising a church and three sets of cloisters, the royal monastery of Brou was founded by Margaret of Austria, Governor of the Netherlands, to house her tomb and that of her husband Philibert II, Duke of Savoy. A masterpiece of the Flamboyant Gothic style, it was constructed between 1506 and 1532 under the direction of the architect Lodewijk van Boghem, assisted by artists from Brussels and Conrad Meit, who was responsible for the recumbent effigies.
While the paintings and objects bequeathed by the founder have been dispersed, the museum nevertheless presents a rich collection of Flemish and Netherlandish art of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. In addition to a portrait of the princess and her nephew Charles V by Bernard van Orley and a major triptych by Grégoire Guérard, private devotional works are particularly well represented and include works by artists such as Colijn de Coter, Adriaen Isenbrant and Jan de Beer. Objets d’art and sculptures complete this group of works. The Dutch Golden Age, meanwhile, is represented mainly by genre scenes and still lifes by Jan Brueghel (I), Frans Francken (II), Frans Snijders, Melchior d’Hondecoeter, Joris van Son and other artists.
Magali Briat-Philippe, Head of Heritage, Department of Cultural Affairs (March 2025)
Collection catalogues
The Fine Arts Museum of the Royal Monastery of Brou. Collections guide
Magali Briat-Philippe, Pierre-Gilles Girault
Milan (Silvana Editoriale) 2023
Les maîtres du nord à Brou: peintures flamandes et hollandaises du Musée de Brou
Marie-Dominique Nivière, Marcel Destrot and Marie-Françoise Poiret
Bourg en Bresse 1994