Information

The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy occupies an eighteenth-century building forming part of the exceptional urban ensemble designed by Emmanuel Héré, architect to the court of Stanislaus Leszczyński, king of Poland and duke of Lorraine. Its collections offer a rich panorama of European art from the end of the Middle Ages to the present day.

The Flemish and Dutch paintings form a body of some 150 works consigned from Paris under the Consulate (in 1803–1804) and steadily expanded by gifts and purchases throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The sixteenth-century is represented by much-admired masterpieces such as a large panel—and expression of Antwerp Mannerism—by Jan van Hemessen. This painting saw the light of day during the turmoil of the Wars of Religion, and is unequivocal in its militant support for the Spanish regime and its battle against Protestantism. Other names worth mentioning are Wenzel Coebergher of the Antwerp school and Joachim Wtewael and Abraham Bloemaert of the Utrecht school.

The seventeenth century opens with the immense Transfiguration by Peter Paul Rubens. Displayed in the vicinity of this virtuoso masterpiece, painted by the young Rubens in Mantua in 1605, is a remarkable constellation of works by renowned collaborators and followers of the Antwerp master: Jacob Jordaens, Anthony van Dyck, Jan Breughel (II), Gaspar de Crayer, Frans Wouters, Theodoor van Thulden, Gerard Seghers, and Cornelis de Vos.

The museum also houses a group of Flemish landscapes by Paul Bril, Gijsbrecht Leytens, Antonio Tempesta, Cornelis van Poelenburch, Joos de Momper, David Teniers, and Jan Tilens along with a number of Dutch examples by Jan van Goyen, Joris Cornelisz. van der Hagen, Dirck van der Lisse, and Jacob Pynas. Meanwhile the still life genre is represented by some notable paintings by Jacob van Es, Cornelis de Heem, and Jan van de Velde (III).

Sophie Laroche, Curator (March 2025)

Collection catalogues

Collection du Musée des Beaux-arts de Nancy: regards
Paris 1999