History
The Rubenianum has in its possession the documentary collection of Pierre de Séjournet de Rameignies (1933-2010). It was donated to the Rubenianum in 2011 by the Heritage Fund that operates under the auspices of the King Baudouin Foundation.
Pierre de Séjournet combined his career as a lawyer with a love of art from the Low Countries. Around 1970 he decided to devote himself entirely to his passion: the study of old master paintings. While studying this subject, he maintained good ties with the museum world and the art trade, and he was a frequent visitor to the reading room of the Rubenianum. As a connoisseur of art, De Séjournet developed a gift for distinguishing between the work of different artists.
Content and structure
The Pierre de Séjournet documentary collection consists of approx. 3,600 files on artists in sixteen filing cabinets. The files contain thousands of images of European works of art, in order of the artist’s name. The private library, which extends to over 70 linear (shelf) meters, includes museum, exhibition and auction catalogues, monographs and reference works. The library and visual documentation of Marie-Louise Hairs is integrated into the collection: see Marie-Louise Hairs Collection.
Consulting this source
A full inventory has been compiled of this collection, which is freely accessible. An inventory and a description of the collection (prepared according to the COMETA model) are available in the reading room. The book collection has been incorporated into the Rubenianum library and can be searched on the online catalogue. All the documentation files on Flemish artists have been integrated into the Rubenianum’s own documentation on works of art.
This donation was made possible thanks to the support of the Heritage Fund of the King Boudewijn Foundation.