Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has an extremely important collection of oil sketches by Peter Paul Rubens. The collection is unique in the Netherlands and is among the best in the world. Whereas Rubens’ large works were created with an army of assistants, his brilliant oil sketches are entirely his own work. In this exhibition, the museum shows Rubens’ unrivalled imagination: his ability to tell stories with endless variety, in which the viewer is swept away. The exhibition is a partnership with the Museo Nacional Del Prado in Madrid.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Prado in Madrid both have unique collections of oil sketches by Peter Paul Rubens. For many years, both museums have wanted to bring together the best works from each collection, supplemented with masterpieces from other collections, to create a unique survey of the artist’s work in this medium. This wish will be fulfilled in the autumn of 2018 with the exhibition Rubens - Painter of Sketches in the museums’ 1500 m2 Bodon Galleries. The exhibition will provide a glimpse inside the room in which Rubens kept his most personal works.

The selection of sketches from both museums will be supplemented with loans from museums all over the world, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris. Thanks to the cooperation of these museums, Rubens mastery can be shown in its full glory. The selection of sixtyfive sketches covers Rubens complete oeuvre (1605-1640) en shows the diversity and genious of this painter.