Jean Baptist Bonnecroy’s “Vue de Bruxelles”  (View of Brussels) has been temporarily reinstalled in its city of origin. The exhibition devoted to The Arenbergs at the M-Museum in Leuven has assembled three cityscapes, all painted by Bonnecroy in the 17th century for the Château of Heverlee near Leuven.

The Vue de Bruxelles (1664–1665) was the very first painting acquired by the King Baudouin Foundation’s Heritage Fund in 1990 and is of exceptional documentary value because numerous buildings, neighbourhoods and fortifications that have since disappeared are represented in minute detail.

Owned by the Dukes of Arenberg, the work originally decorated the “Salon des Trois Villes” (the Three Cities Room) in the family castle of Heverlee. In this exhibition, the View of Brussels sits temporarily alongside similar paintings of Antwerp and Amsterdam, also made by Jean Baptist Bonnecroy (1618–1676). The three works symbolise in a certain manner, what were the heartlands of the Southern Netherlands for the Arenbergs, who played leading roles in Europe in the fields of diplomacy, the military and economics.

Practical details:
« Power and Beauty. The Arenbergs »
M-Museum Leuven
Until 20 January, 2019