La Boverie

Guide : Lairesse was only twenty-two years old when he painted this. Take a moment to look — what strikes you first?

Guide : Köhler was thirty when he entered the Düsseldorf Academy. This painting is one of twenty-four works from that school at La Boverie. Look at this woman — what do you read in her gaze?

Guide : Look at his feet. He just removed his clogs before stepping inside. That gesture lasts a second — Claus froze it forever. What else do you see?

Guide : That red. Before you even see her face, it hits you. De Witte painted this in Rome in 1880 — at thirty, far from Liège, free. What do you feel looking at her?

Guide : One arm raised, head turned, light exploding on pale skin. Wiertz isn't painting a woman — he's painting a suspended moment between life and its shadow. What do you feel looking at her?

Guide : This painting was commissioned by Napoleon himself as a gift to the city of Liège. Ingres was twenty-three. Bonaparte gave him no sittings. Look at that red — what does it tell you?

Guide : Picasso was twenty-two. He had no money. His tailor did. This painting was born from that imbalance. Look at these faces — what do they tell you?

Guide : Why would a house be blue? Chagall never asked that question. He painted his memories, not reality. What do you feel looking at that colour?

Guide : She looks at you without looking at you. That's Laurencin's signature — her subjects are present but elsewhere. What do you read in that face?

Guide : Death looks back at you, surrounded by a cohort of carnival masks. Above, two winged Reapers chase a hot-air balloon. This is James Ensor in 1897, at the height of his powers. But the canvas hides another story: seized as "degenerate art" from the Kunsthalle of Mannheim, it ended up in Lucerne in 1939 in the great Nazi auction designed to raise foreign currency. The City of Liège bought it that day. What would you like to explore: Ensor and his masks, or the Lucerne sale?

Guide : A bare tree, a pink setting sun on the horizon. But look at the branches: they trace the outline of a leaf. Magritte is not painting a tree, he is painting the idea of a tree that wants to be a leaf. This is the first of three versions painted in 1940, a step toward the radical austerity he reaches in 1964. What would you like to explore: the tree-leaf, or what the sun is doing?

Guide : A huge tree, calm water, the classical museum in the distance. It looks like a natural landscape, but it is in fact a meticulous construction: Dérivation dug in 1863, park laid out for 1880, museum built for the 1905 World's Fair. You are standing on an island. What do you see first?

Guide : A faun throws himself at a naked woman who bites his ear. Nothing here is peaceful, and that is exactly why the bronze caused a scandal in Liège in 1905. Yet the city bought it after the controversy, before placing it in the park's rose garden. Look at the bodies: do you see a mythological chase, or a struggle?