Reception Rooms

First Floor

The first floor unfolds as a sequence of the building’s original reception rooms, each with its own character and its own curation of contemporary work. Connected by the Foyer, the Blue Salon, the Dining Room, the Study, the Garden Room and the Chinese Cabinet retain their marble mantels, gilded woodwork and decorative panels, while restored textile walls carry enlarged details from historic paintings. Drawing on historic photographs and plans, the floor imagines how Pieter Smidt van Gelder, Antwerp collector and patron, might live in these rooms today. Each space evokes a different moment of daily life, from receiving guests and dining in company to reading, conversation and retreat.

Works by different artists are brought together through material, form and contrast, and each room is curated in response to its architecture, colours and atmosphere. Rather than recreating the past or erasing it, the Reception Rooms show how contemporary antiques become part of a life, taking on meaning through their surroundings and through one another.

The Blue Salon

Facing the street, the Blue Salon is the most public of the reception rooms, where pale blue tones and faint scenes from Smidt van Gelder’s paintings frame contemporary works of measured lines and softly modulated forms.The Blue Salon

The Dining Room

Set beneath a bacchanal by Jean-Baptiste Pierre, the pale green and gold Dining Room imagines a meal in company, with contemporary works whose transparency, reflection and unexpected lightness invite a second look.The Dining Room

The Study

On the first floor, the Viewing Rooms unfold as a sequence of the building's original reception rooms, each with its own character and its own curation of contemporary work.The Study

The Garden Room

On the first floor, the Viewing Rooms unfold as a sequence of the building's original reception rooms, each with its own character and its own curation of contemporary work.The Garden Room

The Chinese Cabinet

On the first floor, the Viewing Rooms unfold as a sequence of the building's original reception rooms, each with its own character and its own curation of contemporary work.The Chinese Cabinet

The pieces shown here are made today with the same intention, skill, and material honesty that once went into these rooms, and are meant to carry meaning a hundred years from now.