Rubens' Europe

Rubens' Europe

Part of room n° 5, called “Rubens, emulation and competition”.
Date	May 22 – September 23, 2013 (2013-05-22 – 2013-09-23)
Venue	Louvre-Lens
Standort	Lens, France
Typ	Exhibition of works of art
Organised by	Blaise Ducos
Participants	127956

Self-portrait, by Pierre Paul Rubens, from the Rubenshuis, exhibit No. 86 of the exhibition.

Rubin's Europe was a temporary exhibition at the Louvre-Lens which took place in the temporary exhibitions gallery from May 22 to the September 23, 2013, following the inaugural Renaissance exhibition. The exhibition brought together 170 works by Peter Paul Rubens and his contemporaries, the majority of which were on loan from other museums.

Preparing the exhibition took just under two years of work. Many of the works involved come from major international museums. It was open to the public for four months, with 127,956 visitors attended, a little over 20,000 less than the inaugural exhibition, which was open for three weeks less. The statistics in terms of visitors were described as a "success" and "a satisfactory result", although the word of journalists and specialists were mixed, even sometimes negative, though often celebrating the quality of the works. The entrance fee was nine euros, the reduced price was eight. Rubens' Europe was replaced by The Etruscans and the Mediterranean from December 5, 2013.

Sponsorship

The Caisse d'Épargne Nord France Europe was a “major sponsor” of the exhibition, and is, moreover, “a great sponsor” of the Louvre-Lens.

Curator

The Exhibition was curated by Blaise Ducos.

Opening

The opening took place on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 in the afternoon, three hundred guests attending, including Daniel Percheron and Jean-Pierre Kucheida. As well as politicians, patrons or representatives of partner museums and lenders were present.

Unlike the Renaissance exhibition, whose vast majority of works came from the Louvre, most of the works for Rubens' Europe came from other museums, including those of eight countries:

• National Library of France, Paris, France
• Fondation Custodia, Paris, France
• Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris, France
• National Institute of Art History, Paris, France
• Bonnat-Helleu Museum, Bayonne, France
• Palais des beaux-arts, Lille, France
• Chartreuse Museum, Douai, France
• Museum of the History of France, Versailles, France
• Museum of Fine Arts, Marseille, France
• Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany
• Maximilianmuseum, Augsburg, Germany
• Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, Germany
• Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany
• Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, State Museums, Berlin, Germany
• Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany
• Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria
• Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels, Belgium
• Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Bruxelles, Belgium
• Rubenshuis, Antwerp, Belgium
• Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium
• Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp, Belgium
• Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium
• Musée du Prado, Madrid, Spain
• Musée Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
• Palacio de Liria, Madrid, Spain
• Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, Spain
• es:Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Madrid, Spain
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, America
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, America
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, America
• Musée des beaux-arts de Houston, Houston, America
• Musée des beaux-arts, Boston, America
• J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, America
• Centre d'art britannique de Yale, New Haven, America
• Musée national du Bargello, Florence, Italy
• Palais Pitti, Florence, Italy
• Musées du Capitole, Rome, Italy
• Galerie Borghèse, Rome, Italy
• Musée Teyler, Haarlem, the Netherlands
• Musée Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The UK-Uni
• British Museum, London, The UK-Uni
• National Gallery, London, The UK-Uni
• Royal Collection, London, The UK-Uni
• Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, The UK-Uni

In total, there are fifty-three lenders, mostly museums, and some collectors. The works were in seven rooms: L'Europe des cours (rooms 1 and 2), Religious emotion and baroque faith (room No.3), Ephemeral monumentality (room No.4), Rubens, emulation and competition (room No .5), Rubens and the Republic of Letters (room No.6), and The Ways of Genius (room No.7).

• L'organisation de l'espace
• 
  1^re salle : L'Europe des cours.
• 
  2^e salle : L'Europe des cours.
• 
  3^e salle : Émotion religieuse et foi baroque.
• 
  4^e salle : Monumentalité éphémère.
• 
  5^e salle : Rubens, émulation et concurrence.
• 
  6^e salle : Rubens et la république des lettres.
• 
  7^e salle : Les voies du génie.

Tortured Prometheus

The exhibition catalog cost €39. Its cover depicts Tortured Prometheus, an oil painting begun in 1611-1612 by Peter Paul Rubens and Frans Snyders, completed in 1618. Lucie Streiff-Rivail, responsible for books at the Louvre-Lens, says that this 362-page book took about a year and a half of work, its proof was given on April 22, with a slight delay. The catalogs were delivered on May 13, just over a week before the exhibition opened to the public. Lucie Streiff-Rivail described the catalog as "a very high-quality document", it is around 700,000 characters.

Bibliography

• L'Europe de Rubens (in French). Lens & Paris: Musée du Louvre-Lens & Éditions Hazan. 2013. ISBN 978-2-36838-012-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)

References

• References to L'Europe de Rubens. Musée du Louvre-Lens & Éditions Hazan. 2013.

See also

Connected articles

• Pierre Paul Rubens

External links

• www.louvrelens.fr/exposition-temporaire-l-europe-de-rubens
• Exposition temporaire L'Europe de Rubens, musée du Louvre-Lens on YouTube