Queen Mathilde visited the exhibition L'Europe de Rubens, being held until 23 September at the Louvre Lens. This is her first official visit abroad as Queen. The visit is an initiative of the Rubenianum Fund, as part of a trip organised for the Friends of the Fund. Prior to visiting the exhibition, the Queen attended a presentation given by Thomas Leysen, President of the Rubenianum Fund, Xavier Dectot, Director of Louvre Lens, and Blaise Decot, the exhibition curator.

The Rubenianum Fund has launched the challenge of completing the publication of the Corpus Rubenianum in 2020, the most extensive artist’s catalogue raisonné ever made, in this case for Rubens. Begun in 1967, the work lay somewhat dormant for several years until the Rubenianum Fund gave it a new lease of life with support from numerous patrons. Each year, the Fund organizes an exclusive trip to discover major collections containing works by Rubens. After Madrid, Venice and London, this year’s chosen destination was Paris. The trip began with a visit to the exhibition at Louvre Lens, which has assembled some 170 works, more than half of which are works by Rubens himself.