Thomas Lerooy & Félicien Rops / Vanity Fair

01 April 2018 - 10 June 2018

The year 2018 is dominated at Castle Gaasbeek by the theme of 'vanitas'. The Vanity Fair exhibition presents a dialogue between Thomas Lerooy (° 1981) and Félicien Rops (1833-1898), two artists who have a special affinity with one another. Lerooy, who two years ago caused a stir with his sensational Beauty in the Shadow of the Stars exhibition in the Petit Palais in Paris, works just like the satirical Rops on decadent themes such as transitoriness, mortality and decay, and also refers formally to art history. Extreme contrasts and sardonic ironies are part of this process: flowers appear to grow out of a skeleton, centaurs pose as lap dogs, cherubs swirl around in a kind of playful dance... Much of his work is made of bronze, a material that invokes distance and monumentality, but, like Rops, Lerooy is also a virtuoso draughtsman. A meeting between two soul mates, between angels and demons...

In collaboration with the Félicien Rops Museum, Namur

• from 1 April to 10 June 2018
• Click here for the opening times.
• Click here for the ticket prices.

• Brasserie Graaf van Egmond presents the VANITY FAIR Exhibition Menu (1st April - 10th June 2018):

  • Starter Carrot and fennel soup flavoured with coconut milk and chili (mildly spicy)

  • Main Course Pork cheeks “Félicien” (Kriek beer-infused stew)

  • Dessert Dame blanche or Dame noire topped with warm chocolate sauce and sumac