Musée de la Chartreuse

Since 1958, the Musée de la Chartreuse in Douai, founded at the end of the eighteenth century, has occupied a seventeenth-century former Carthusian monastery. On display in the museum are 175 Flemish and Dutch works dating from the end of the Middle Ages to the middle of the eighteenth century. In addition to the Anchin and Marchiennes polyptyches (outstanding masterpieces by, respectively, Jean Bellegambe and Jan van Scorel) are paintings by Frans Floris, Marinus van Reymerswale, Michiel Coxcie, Roelant Savery, Hendrick Goltzius, Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, Jacob Jordaens, Peter Paul Rubens, Abraham Govaerts, Balthasar van der Ast, Jan Lievens, Arent de Gelder, Nicolaes Maes, Gerrit Berckheyde, Salomon de Bray, Jacob van Ruisdael, Abraham Mignon, and Jan Weenix. The collections also comprise sculptures, furniture, gold- and silverware, and ceramics, including an important set of three Delftware vases made by the manufactory Het Moriaanshooft at the end of the seventeenth century, whose central bottle-shaped vase was acquired in 2021. In 2022, the museum recreated a Flemish cabinet of curiosities of the seventeenth century. The museum pursues an active restoration policy aimed at bringing works, such as an Anthony van Dyck portrait (in 2025), out of storage.

Pierre Bonnaure, Director (March 2025)