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Located in the small town of La Fère in northern France, the Musée Jeanne d’Aboville presents a collection of paintings assembled and donated to her town of birth by a nineteenth-century countess, Gabrielle-Uranie d’Héricourt de Valincourt. Preserved around this legacy, the museum displays a surprising number of works from northern Europe: 34% of its collection is Dutch and 17% Flemish.

The collection includes a significant number of examples by Flemish Primitives, such as various remarkable religious works of the sixteenth century: a triptych by Aertgen Claesz. van Leyden, The Wise and Foolish Virgins, a monumental painting by Maerten de Vos, and the very beautiful Mary Magdalene by Jan Massijs.

As more than half of our collection is from the seventeenth century, a number of major names from this Golden Age are represented: Salomon van Ruysdael with his important Ruins of Egmond Abbey, Pieter de Putter with his Still Life with Fish, Matthias Withoos with Mors Omnia Vincit (Death conquers all), Emanuel de Witte with one of his most beautiful paintings, Imaginary Church Interior with Monks, and Karel du Jardin. The Antwerp room houses treasures of Flemish art and a number of masterpieces of the Antwerp school including Little Landscape by Jan Brueghel (I), Forest Interior by Alexander Keirincx, and a mythological scene, Faun, Fauness, and Panthers from the studio of Rubens.

Mariel Hennequin, Director and Curator (February 2025)

Collection catalogues

Richesses de la peinture flamande et hollandaise des XVIè et XVIIè siècles au Musée Jeanne d’Aboville de la Fère
Debrie, Christine
La Fère 1988

Related CODART publications