Art foundation of entrepreneur Fernand Huts sets up flower expo in Tallinn
The official opening of Garden of Delights. The Seventeenth Century in Bloom, an expo by The Phoebus Foundation of Belgian entrepreneur Fernand Huts, took place on Friday in the Estonian capital Tallinn. More than three hundred works shed new light on the use of nature, and especially flowers, in the art of the Low Countries.
According to the The Phoebus Foundation, all the floral still lifes in the expo tell a story: about status and prestige, about love and desire, and above all about the fear of death and the transience of life. Because, just like flowers, human life is not forever.
Using pigment analyses, special scans and other research techniques, restorers managed to penetrate the deepest layers of the paintings, revealing stories hidden from the naked eye in masterpieces by amongst others Jan Brueghel the Elder, Clara Peeters and Anna Maria Janssens.
Fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck is the scenographer of the exhibition. With enlarged model flowers, carpets he designed himself and contemporary fashion silhouettes by Dries Van Noten, Comme des Garçons and himself, Van Beirendonck “takes visitors on a journey between floral scenes and chambers of wonder”.
The works are on display at the Kadriorg Art Museum in Tallinn, in a palace built by Russian Tsar Peter the Great in the 18th century for his second wife, Catherine. The exhibition runs until 25 January 2026.
Business relations
The fact that the exhibition is taking place in Estonia is a result of the business relationships that Fernand Huts has built up there. In 2009, logistics company Katoen Natie, owned by Huts, set foot in the country for the first time after acquiring the Dutch Unieveem group in the port of Muuga.
The Phoebus Foundation has also organised exhibitions in the United States, Canada and France in the past.
#FlandersNewsService | Expo 'Garden of Delights. The Seventeenth Century in Bloom' © PHOTO HANDOUT FRIS VISUALS
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