The tapestries of Guillaume Werniers and Catherine Ghuys in Lille in the eighteenth century

Treasures of Wool and Silk. The Tapestries of Guillaume Werniers and Catherine Ghuys in Lille in the Eighteenth Century, currently on display at the Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse in Lille, ticks all the boxes for a benchmark scholarly exhibition: a pioneering monograph on a little-known part of its own collections, which has, for the occasion, benefited from an extensive restoration campaign, during which unprecedented historical research was carried out and subsequently presented at a study day held on 1 April 2025 at the University of Lille, the proceedings of which were published in Revue du Nord last May.

Its visit certainly confirms this and reveals a display worthy of its textile subject, despite the particularly demanding constraints imposed by strict preventive conservation measures. Its catalogue, although highly concise, proves scholarly and fills an obvious gap. Only a university dissertation submitted by Emmanuelle Wanaverbecq in Lille in 1996 [1] seems to have taken this tapestry workshop as a specific subject, following the pioneering work, more than a century old, of Jules Houdoy, Les tapisseries de haute-lisse. Histoire de la fabrication lilloise du XIVe au XVIIIe siècle, published in 1871. We may nevertheless regret that the book published for the occasion does not follow the order of the six thematic sections of the exhibition route, forcing us to consult the appendices for the list of works on display, and then to search among the essays for their reproductions and…