Flemish and Dutch Paintings in the Louvre Museum

Guided Tour Structure

The full Louvre's Flemish and Dutch painting tour is organized chronologically in six parts, except for the 17th century, for which Flemish Baroque and Dutch painting are presented one after the other.

• (1) The Flemish Primitives  – The Bruges’ Golden Age
• (2) Flemish Renaissance – humanism and reformation
• (3) The Romanism
• (4) 1585 turning point: Flemish Baroque versus Dutch Golden Age
• (5) Flemish Baroque Painting: The Age of Rubens
• (6) Dutch Golden Age

As the economic capital of the Burgundian State until its fall in 1477, Bruges was the epicenter of this artistic period, often called the Bruges Golden Age. Among all the Louvre masterpieces of the period are some exceptional paintings from two of the three great Early Flemish artists: Van Eyck and van der Weyden.

Jan van Eyck is one of the most important painters in the history of art notably due to his prominent role in the development of oil painting and portraits. His « Rolin-Madonna » (1435) is a Louvre must-see, a work with an amazing level of detail supporting an infinite number of interpretations. A macro photograph of the Rolin Madonna is available on the KIK-IRPA website.

Rogier van der Weyden (or Roger de la Pasture) became the most prestigious Flemish painter after the death of van Eyck in 1441. He had been a pupil of Robert Campin, who is usually identified as the Master of Flémalle, the third great Early Flemish painter. Three of his works are in the Louvre:

• The Braque Family Triptych  (only surviving private devotional work by van der Weyden)
• The Annunciation (strongly influenced by Campin's in the Met, New York)
• The Portrait of the Duke of Cleves (a nephew of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy)

Hans Memling, despite being German, became a leading figure of the Bruges Golden Age. The Louvre houses one of the biggest concentrations of his masterpieces. Among them are: "Angel with an Olive Branch" a work full of softness, "The Madonna and Child with Saint James and Saint Dominic", an exceptional sacred conversation or « The Triptych of the Resurrection » a work clearly influenced by Italian painting. The Italian and Flemish schools of painting were by far the greatest of the period and influenced each other.

This Italian influence is also visible in "The Sedano Family Triptych" by Gerard David, another major painter of the Bruges School. His death (1523) is considered by many art historians as the end of the Flemish Primitive period, even if others extend it to the death of Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1568 or even later.

Last but not least is Hieronymus Bosch, a major artist with a very specific style made of fantastic illustrations with macabre, nightmarish, and mocking depictions. Because of his fame and success, Bosch was intensively copied throughout the 16th century. Pieter Bruegel the Elder himself started as one of his followers.

Bosch's « Ship of Fools » (ca. 1500) is another Louvre Flemish painting must-see.

With so many Bosch copies in circulation in the world, it is one of the rare works considered authentic by the Bosch Research and Conservation Project. This key painting can be read as a critique of certain aspects of the Catholic Church. The work clearly refers to Das Narrenschiff (The Ship of Fools), a satirical allegory of 1494 illustrated by a young Albrecht Dürer in which the humanist and theologian Sebastian Brant lashed the weaknesses and vices of the time.

The work is an open door to the next chapter of the Flemish painting tour: Humanism and Reformation.

After 1500, with the silting up of its port, Bruges started to lose its economic prosperity and, with it, its artistic leadership, and was rapidly replaced in both respects by Antwerp as the flagship of the Habsburg Low Countries.

Our tour will continue with three major painters of the Flemish Renaissance, representatives of the Antwerp School: Quentin Matsys, Joachim Patinir (Patinier) and Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

There are four works by Quentin Matsys in the Louvre. The two most famous ones are:

The "Money Changer and his Wife" (signed 1514) is a typical Flemish genre painting scene, but also an allegory and a memento mori full of symbolism. A little convex mirror in the middle of the work is a clear reference to the « Arnolfini Portrait » by van Eyck.

The "Mary Magdalene" (ca. 1515) is also an exceptional work, full of the grace and softness of Antwerp Mannerism as well as symbols and references to the works of Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden and Leonardo da Vinci.

Both masterpieces entered the Louvre collections quite recently (2005 and 2006, thanks to the support of Crédit Immobilier de France).

The end of the 15th century saw an important evolution in art: the beginning of landscape as an independent painting style, with a clearly identified main pioneer: Joachim Patinier.

The Louvre « Saint Jerome in the Desert » (1521) by Patinier is ideal for understanding the characteristics of the first Flemish landscapes.

Not far away is a self-portrait of a man who wrote about the quality of the landscape paintings of his friend Patinir: Albrecht Dürer, the most famous German painter of the Renaissance.

As you might guess, Romanism is all about the influence of Italian art on Flemish art, more precisely the influence of the late Italian Renaissance (called Mannerism) on Antwerp artists. Nevertheless, the movement was initiated by Jan Mabuse (or Jan Gossaert) as early as 1510, right after his 1508-1510 journey to High Renaissance Italy, and more specifically to Rome, when Michelangelo and Raphael were working in the Vatican.

The Carondelet Diptych signed 1517 by Jan Mabuse is part of the Louvre collections.

The reference for the development of Italian Mannerism in Flanders is Frans Floris, but a big part of his work was destroyed  in the 1566 Beeldenstorm (iconoclastic attacks by Calvinist Protestant crowds). Floris never recovered, and his production then decreased drastically. His Louvre "Allegory of the Trinity" was painted four years before the drama.

The same year, Jan Matsys, son of Quentin Matsys, painted "David and Bathsheba", a work in which his Italian mannerism is visibly influenced by the French School of Fontainebleau.

But the one who picked up the torch of Romanism after Frans Floris was Marten de Vos; his Louvre "Saint Paul Bitten by a Viper on the Island of Malta" dates from the year of the Beeldenstorm, 1566.

In 1572, De Vos established the Guild of Romanists; having traveled to Rome was a condition of membership.

Among the members of the Guild of Romanists were some other very famous artists, such as Otto van Veen and Jan Brueghel the Elder, respectively the master and close friend of Peter Paul Rubens, and also Rubens himself, who would become the most prominent figure of the next artistic movement: the Flemish Baroque.

The sixteenth-century Reformation did not only have an impact on ideas; it also had huge political consequences. In Northern Europe, the Eighty Years’ War split the Low Countries in two: Spanish-ruled Catholic Flanders in the south and the independent Protestant United Provinces in the north.

1585 is a strategic date in the Eighty Years’ War as well as for the Northern schools. On 17 August of that year, Antwerp, which was the head of the Protestant revolt, surrendered to Habsburg Spanish forces. All Protestants had four years to leave the city; many of them migrated to the north, more specifically to Amsterdam which became the capital of the Dutch Republic (United Provinces).

So 1585 marks the end of Antwerp's economic prominence in Northern Europe in favor of Amsterdam, and the early beginning of the Dutch Golden Age.

Jan Brueghel the Elder (Velvet Brueghel), the most famous son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder is considered the creator, or at least the most talented artist, of flower still lifes. Jan Brueghel and Peter Paul Rubens were good friends and, following the Flemish tradition, collaborated on some works, such as the "Madonna in Floral Wreath", a touching Louvre masterpiece in which the central medallion is by Rubens and the flowers by Brueghel.

As the Louvre owns a large number of works by Rubens, we will obviously come across others on our tour route and may see, depending on our pace, the famous Marie de' Medici Cycle (24 paintings created by the Flemish Baroque master for the Luxembourg Palace on the Left Bank of Paris) or a much more intimate portrait of Rubens' second wife, Helena Fourment.

Rubens is famous not only for his own work but also for his pupils, for example Anthony van Dyck, who was also Rubens’ assistant before becoming the leading court painter in England. This Flemish Baroque artist may clearly be considered the founder of the English School. Our tour route includes a famous full-length portrait from van Dyck's English period, «Charles I at the Hunt».

The United Provinces rapidly became the leading economic power of the 17th century, a period of extremely rich art creation. An art that inherited the detail and realism of the early Netherlandish painters, avoiding Baroque idealization and, obviously, any Catholic Reformation influence.

Diversity was another main characteristic of 17th-century Dutch painting.

Maritime paintings are great witnesses of the 17th-century Dutch Empire, such as « The Return of the Fleet of the Dutch East India Company » by Ludolf Backhuysen, who became the most important Dutch painter of the field after Willem van de Velde the Elder and the Younger left for England in 1672. The Louvre also shows two maritime paintings by van de Velde the Younger.

Paintings of foreign lands, such as the Brazilian landscapes by Frans Post, bear witness not only to the Dutch Empire but also to its industry, with depictions of sugar mills. These Frans Post works are some of the very first representations of South America.

Proud depictions of industrial innovations may also be hidden in Dutch countryside landscapes, as in « The Watermill », which, despite its rustic appearance, shows an innovative water-powered sawmill. The painting is by Meindert Hobbema, one of the most famous landscape painters of the time besides his master Van Ruisdael.

The wealth of the Dutch Republic can also be seen in cityscape paintings, such as the « Herengracht in Amsterdam» by Jan van der Heyden where we can see the impressive houses (veritable urban palaces) along the canal.

Some Dutch perspective painters were more specialized in church interiors, such as Emmanuel de Witte or  Cornelisz Van Vliet.

The two other most famous Dutch Golden Age painters are also present in the Louvre.

Johannes Vermeer: no more than 35 works have been attributed to the mysterious Delft painter, two are in the Louvre: « The Astronomer » and «The Lacemaker».

Rembrandt: a full Louvre room is dedicated to the Dutch chiaroscuro master and his pupils with among many masterpieces « Bathsheba at Her Bath » and « The Supper at Emmaus».

Bathsheba at Her Bath is a recurring theme of the tour. We will then be able to see the evolution of the subject from Jan Metsys to Rembrandt and then to the version of Willem Drost (a Rembrandt pupil) also presented at the Louvre.

Bathsheba at Her Bath by Rembrandt. Photo credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.