Un Univers Intime — Tableaux de la collection Frits Lugt — Institut néerlandais — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: February 29 → May 27, 2012

The paintings of the Frits Lugt Collection — Fondation Custodia leave their home for the Institut Néerlandais, displaying for the first time the full scope of the collection. Un Univers intime offers a rare opportunity to view this outstanding collection of pictures (Berchem, Saenredam, Maes, Teniers, Guardi, Largillière, Isabey, Bonington…), expanded in the past two years with another hundred works. The intimate interiors of Hôtel Turgot, home to the Frits Lugt Collection, do indeed keep many treasures which remain a secret to the public.

The exhibition presents this collection which was created gradually, with great passion and discernment, over nearly a century, in a selection of 115 paintings, including masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age, together with Flemish, Italian, French and Danish paintings.

There is no doubt that the most famous works in the Frits Lugt Collection are those of the Dutch Golden Age. The collection holds a range of pictures to represent every facet of this glorious period: from landscape to portrait, from still life to church interior, from history piece to genre painting. Various works from the collection are often requested for loans to international exhibitions. The numerous loans reflect the importance that the Frits Lugt Collection has acquired for the understanding and appreciation of Dutch art of the 17th century.

Art lovers who have taken the guided tour which, once a month, leads visitors through the salons of Hôtel Turgot to experience the passion of the collection in its exquisite surroundings, will be pleased with the opportunity to discover a few new and unknown paintings — recent acquisitions, works kept in storage or hung in rooms closed to the public — which are absent from regular display.

In 2010, the Frits Lugt Collection was enhanced with nearly 60 oil sketches on paper from the bequest of Carlos van Hasselt (1929-2009), former director of the Fondation Custodia. This ensemble, so naturally suited to complete the collection, is a testimony to his delicate taste and personal intuition. The Van Hasselt bequest enriches the 19th-century holdings, especially in the field of French and Danish drawings of landscape.

With a dynamic acquisition policy in both 2010 and 2011, sketches were acquired to complete the coherence and emphasize the quality of this ensemble. Un Univers intime now offers for the first time a selection of this group.

In preparation for the exhibition Un Univers intime, quite a few paintings were put into the care of restaurers, a process that provides a close and fresh view of the works. We also took the opportunity to seek and find the period frames, Dutch or Flemish, that are truly fitting for some of these important paintings, made in view of their display in contemporary frames.