After its presentation in the exhibition-event Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, La Dentellière of Vermeer joined the Louvre-Lens Time Gallery on June 28, for a period of almost a year, during a unveiling ceremony that gathered around Laurence Des Cars, President and Director of the Louvre: Xavier Bertrand, Chairman of the Hauts-de-France Regional Council, Jean-Claude Leroy, President of the Departmental Council of Pas-de-Calais, Hélène Corre, deputy mayor of Lens, in charge of culture, heritage, attractiveness, and tourism, Jan Versteeg, Ambassador of the Netherlands to France and Georges-François Leclerc, Prefect of the Hauts-de-France region, accompanied by Jacques Billant, Prefect of Pas-de-Calais, Jean-François Raffy, Deputy Prefect of Lens, and Hilary Multon, regional director of cultural affairs of Hauts-de-France.
The loan of the masterpiece to Lens unanimously welcomed
" This loan of an emblematic work of our collections demonstrates once again our unwavering attachment to the community of spirit, project and ambition that together form the Louvre Museum and the Louvre-Lens Museum. It reflects, by its exceptional character, the Louvre’s concrete support for the Louvre-Lens project and our wish to continue to show the most diverse masterpieces. ", stresses Laurence Des Cars, on the occasion of the presentation of the work.
La Dentellière has travelled in recent years: this very small format, 21 centimetres by 24, was called in Washington in 1995, in The Hague in 1996, in Frankfurt in 2005, in Japan (in Tokyo and then in Kyoto) in 2009, in Cambridge in 2011, in Dublin, Washington in 2017, in Abu Dhabi in 2019 and most recently in Amsterdam for the monographic exhibition at the Rijskmuseum. It was made by Vermeer in this 17th century New York, La Dentellière has been around the world for the last twenty years, never stopping anywhere but in capitals, in leading museums, in large cultural metropolises. Indeed, Johannes Vermeer, Delft’s Sphynx, has executed 45 paintings. 37 are currently preserved, 21 are signed, only 4 paintings are dated. 2 paintings, The Astronomer and La Dentellière, are preserved in France by the Louvre Museum.
While welcoming the joint action of the Hauts-de-France Region of the Louvre Museum, as well as thanking Rima Abdul-Malak, Minister of Culture, the Prefect of the Region, Georges-François Leclerc, said:Seeing La Dentellière today in the Galerie du temps, accessible for free, without constraint, is an emotion. To see it in Lens, in this museum built on an old stone pit, in a city of 32,000 inhabitants, in the heart of the Mining Basin, in this Louvre, one of its turbines, is a political symbol that manifests the highest consideration of the inhabitants in our cultural policies."
Xavier Bertrand, President of the Hauts-de-France Region, said:Welcome today The Dentellière de Vermeer is a very nice nod that the Louvre Museum makes to the Region. We are a region of lace with Caudry and Calais, it is a know-how of Hauts-de-France recognized internationally that we preserve. We can be proud to have the work of a great master of Dutch painting that represents an art to which the Region is attached ! »
A mediation around the work
Trademark of the Louvre-Lens, tailor-made mediation devices are designed to accompany visitors in their discovery, and promote the appropriation of the work by all.
On July 1 and 2, the museum is planning a festive event to celebrate the arrival of the masterpiece with the public:
- an introductory workshop on bobbin lace, in the company of a lace maker;
- an introductory workshop on oil painting as practised in the 17th century;
- Workshop around the optical instrument used by painters: the camera obscura ;
- For the little ones, workshop of creation of badges with the effigy of the work;
- Guided tours highlighting the great masters of painting in Europe in the 17th century in the Gallery of Time;
- mini recitals of Dutch baroque music by the ensemble Il Buranello.
Throughout the summer:
- Visitors are invited to meet the work through a daily programme of Impromptus, a signature format of the Louvre Lens. Every half hour, these free short presentations, animated by a mediator, allow you to share with audiences the keys to reading the work, to allow yourself an emotion, awaken your curiosity and make you want to deepen your discovery.
- A mediator also stands close to the work, continuously, to encourage exchange and answer any questions.
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