Artistic direction: Virginie Martin | Production and video animation: Cutback | Musical collaboration: Start Rec | Production: Culturespaces Studio®
Experience the Dutch Masters at Fabrique des Lumières in a unique, multisensory way!
This immersive exhibition takes you back to the 17th-century, the golden age of Dutch painters such as Vermeer and Rembrandt capturing the Dutch society with rough seas, scenes of faith and enchanting winter landscapes. In total, more than 325 artworks by some 50 different painters can be admired. Explore the reality of daily life, following the footsteps of the great masters who represented the ordinary in an extraordinary way.
Set sail and berth your boats in the cities. Stroll around in Vermeer’s world, where a city is waking up and coming to life. Residents are already engrossed in their daily work, and observing them through their windows creates a sense of intimacy. Busy ladies, servants, merchants, scholars and doctors are painted candidly, from direct observation, as if these were photographs.
Master of chiaroscuro Rembrandt then entices viewers to embark on an introspective journey. As night falls in the heart of the cathedrals, you’re immersed in a spiritual atmosphere surrounded by biblical themes. Cementing his reputation as an unrivaled portraitist, the powerfully realistic Night Watch brings the procession of portraits to a climactic end. From Abraham Blommaert’s kingdom of the gods to Hendrick Avercamp’s enchanting winter landscapes, rough seas by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom and Jan Steen’s festive tavern scenes, the exhibition immerses us in the fascinating world of seventeenth-century Holland.
As a worthy heir to the 17th-centruty Dutch masters, Van Gogh also deserves our undivided attention. Using bright colors and imbuing his work with intense emotion, he sculpted the paint and sublimated the landscapes, self-portraits, and still lifes. The journey continues with the heat of the Midi, introducing powerful rays of sunlight that further brightened his colour palette. In the wheat fields, the last sunrays take visitors into a Mediterranean siesta that transitions to a dreamlike Starry Night.
This exhibition is 34 minutes long, and is immediately followed by our short exhibition Mondriaan, An Abundance of Colour. The same ticket grants access to both exhibitions.