Information
The Yper Museum is dedicated to the culture of the city of Ypres and the Franco-Belgian region of Westhoek. It manages an extensive collection of furniture, insignia, maps, textiles, and archaeological finds from the region.
The art collection features artists who either came from Ypres or worked there. It consists of paintings, prints and drawings, decorative arts, sculptures, and photography. Some of the items in the collection of prints and drawings – a sixteenth-century drawing of the tomb of Mary of Burgundy in Bruges, for instance – are among the official list of Flemish masterpieces. The panel paintings from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries illustrate the religious life in Ypres. They are remarkable for their high artistic quality, their subject matter, and for those who commissioned them. Examples include a painting depicting The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria that was made for Our Lady’s Hospital and O Mater Dei, Memento Mei for St. John’s Church. The museum also possesses portraits of Charles V and Margaret of Austria from the workshop of Bernard van Orley.
The Yper Museum also manages a large collection of nineteenth-century art, including photography.
Els Veraverbeke, Curator (May 2022)