Stads Museum Lier

Northeast Belgium

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Undergoing a total renovation at the time of research, this well-endowed provincial art gallery sits behind a classic step-gabled facade and, when finished, will set out the story of Lier through the works of local writers and artists.

The museum's collection includes pre-Raphaelite-style canvases by Isidore Opsomer (1878–1967), notably a 1900 painting of Jesus hanging out in Lier. Expect plenty of references to Felix Timmermans (1886–1947), whose 1916 novel Pallieter recast Lier folk as life-loving bohemians: they’d previously been dismissively nicknamed schapekoppen (sheep-heads) for their short-sighted medieval decision that the town should host a sheep market rather than Flanders’ first great university.

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