around 1375 -1444 · Tournai and birth of Flemish painting

Concrete interiors, sculptural figures and everyday symbols make Robert Campin, associated with the Master of Flémalle, a founder of Flemish realism.

Robert Campin was born around 1375 and died in Tournai in 1444. Documented in this city from 1406, received as a bourgeois in 1410 then master of a prosperous workshop, he also exercised civic responsibilities. Historians generally identify him with the Master of Flémalle, the name given to the painter of a group of panels formerly attributed to an anonymous personality. This identification and several attributions remain discussed, because the workshop produces collectively and few works are documented with certainty. Campin nonetheless occupies a founding place alongside Jan van Eyck. He gives the figures an almost sculptural mass and installs the sacred episodes in 15th century houses. meticulously observed. The Virgin and Child in front of the fireplace transforms a familiar interior into a space of devotion; furniture, fire and domestic objects make the invisible close. The Flémalle Panels combine monumentality, deep draperies and the illusion of materials. In Seilern's Triptych, pain, gold and depth condense the story of the Passion. His portraits, such as Portrait of a Man, isolate the face with a precision that renews individual presence. His portraits, such as Portrait of a Man, isolate the face with a precision that renews individual presence. His portraits, such as Portrait of a Man, isolate the face with a precision that renews individual presence. His portraits, such as Portrait of a Man, isolate the face with a precision that renews individual presence. His portraits, such as Portrait of a Man, isolate the face with a precision that renews individual presence. His portraits, such as Portrait of a Man, isolate the face with a precision that renews individual presence. His portraits, such as Portrait of a Man, isolate the face with a precision that renews individual presence. His portraits, such as Portrait of a Man, isolate the face with a precision that renews individual presence. His portraits, such as detail: it unifies light, volume, material and symbol in an intensely tangible reality. The "Robert Campin" selection notably compares Seilern's Triptych - The Entombment and Flémalle's Panels: Standing Virgin. His reading favors space.

Campin brings the sacred into the house: a fireplace, a bench or a reflection become as eloquent as the gesture of figures.