Axel Vervoordt on curating the Onzea-Govaerts Collection: ‘You rely on finding connections between objects on a deep, unspoken level’

Axel Vervoordt was surrounded by horses from a young age. His father was an equine trader, and young Axel was often tasked with breaking the animals in. He has been a keen rider his entire life, and for many years practised dressage. He enjoys ‘being one with a horse,’ he says, ‘and through that oneness… feeling oneness with the universe’.

There are striking parallels in Vervoordt’s professional life. Now aged 77, in his multiple roles as a designer, interior designer, curator, art and antiques dealer and architect, he has been one of the great tastemakers of the late 20th and early 21st century.

He has firm ideas about what makes a house a home: notably ‘that the owner of a house… feels one with it, that it is part of themselves’. For Vervoordt, a home should exude warmth and liveability, and be the owner’s ‘most preferred place on Earth’.

He put those words boldly into practice with the stunning collection of art and objects he helped his Belgian compatriots, Joris Onzea and Suzanne Govaerts, acquire for their house in Flanders. Working with the couple over four decades, he curated that collection, too — creating harmonious spaces throughout their home, where items from a host of times and places were displayed. (That word ‘harmonious’ is important, more on which later.)

The collection includes Flemish Old Master paintings; early English silver; classic furniture; Dayak figure sculptures from Borneo; Ming dynasty ceramics; a Kota reliquary figure from Gabon; a substantial body of work by the Belgian Fauvist Rik Wouters; and standout pieces of contemporary art, such as Concetto Spaziale, Attese from 1960, an early example of Lucio Fontana’s career-defining ‘Tagli’ series (of knife-slashed canvases).

On 27 March 2025, Christie’s presents the sale The Onzea-Govaerts Collection — curated by Axel Vervoordt in Paris.

Exactly 100 years ago, the entrepreneur Karel Govaerts founded a business called Fort. Initially, it specialised in dairy produce, before expanding its scope to trade other foodstuffs, too, principally coffee. In a move that was innovative at the time, Karel introduced a policy of offering savings stamps with every purchase, which customers could collect and subsequently exchange for Fort products.

Following his death in 1962, his eldest daughter Suzanne took over the reins of the company with her husband, Joris Onzea. The following decade, the couple founded a highly successful chain of home furnishing stores called CASA — the first store opening in the Belgian town of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve in 1975, followed by several others nationally and internationally.

At around the same time, Govaerts and Onzea began to collect art. One of their first purchases was The Peasant Wedding (1622) by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, a bustling composition depicting a wedding-day feast. It was modelled on a homonymous painting by the artist’s father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, which resides today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. However, it is more vibrant in colour and more celebratory in mood.

Vervoordt first met Govaerts and Onzea when he was still a twentysomething, at a dinner party in the early 1970s. The rapport between them all was instant. The couple were soon frequent visitors to Vervoordt’s home in Antwerp, where they discussed their embryonic collection.

Getting to know their taste, he began identifying works at fairs and galleries and recommending them for purchase. He sold them pieces through his own dealership, too — a bronze leopard by the great animalier Rembrandt Bugatti, for instance. Likewise, part of a silver service made in the late 18th century for King George III. One of the finest table services from that period, it was produced by the Parisian master Claude-Auguste Aubry and was widely used at court entertainments.

Vervoordt says it was obvious from the outset that Govaerts and Onzea had an exceptional eye for quality. However, it was another factor that made his move into curating their collection so easy.

‘They had a very authentic approach to collecting,’ Vervoordt says. ‘They only bought things that they loved. And this gave a real spirit to their home. It never felt like a museum. It always felt warm and lived-in, and I adored that.’

Vervoordt fondly recalls visiting England as a teenager, when he was making his first forays as a dealer. ‘I visited big country houses,’ he says, ‘and was amazed by the casual and unpretentious manner in which people lived with beautiful things. They would leave a muddy pair of wellington boots on the floor beneath an incredible painting by Gainsborough!’

Govaerts and Onzea’s approach to their house was similarly casual and unpretentious. ‘One of the great things about them was that they didn’t just to want to look at their collection,’ Vervoordt says. ‘They wanted to enjoy it and, where possible, use it. They never liked keeping things behind glass, for instance. Even with the most beautiful silver they acquired, they used it.’

A large part of Vervoordt’s role with the couple involved deciding how to show the Onzea-Govaerts Collection within the family home. Over his illustrious career, he has worked in a similar way with the likes of Robert De Niro, Sting, Calvin Klein, and the pianist sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque.

‘I always follow my intuition,’ Vervoordt says. ‘Curating is best when it’s kept simple. By which I mean, you rely on finding connections between objects on a deep, unspoken level.’ Vervoordt puts light, texture, colour and form at the service of his intuition, and invariably ends up with compelling juxtapositions.

In the entrance hall of the Onzea-Govaerts house, for example, he hung a serene abstract painting by Jef Verheyen (completed in 1976) on a wall above a William and Mary olive wood console table (circa 1700). Upon that table he placed a bronze archaistic ritual vessel from Song dynasty China (960-1279).

In the living room — to cite one juxtaposition among many there — Vervoordt placed a large black coffee table from 1970, by the Belgian designer Ado Chale, below a six-fold screen from Edo-period Japan (17th-18th century). The latter stretches several metres across the wall on which it hangs, and depicts a flower-lined stream against a gold background.

The end result sees the pieces of the collection complement not just each other but their surroundings within the house. ‘What I strive for is harmony,’ Vervoordt says. ‘I’m seeking more than just beauty — I’m seeking a positive energy throughout.’

His work at Govaerts and Onzea’s home was an early instance of Vervoordt finding such energy. In his view, good art is timeless, transcending where and when it was made. (At the start of his career, in the late 1960s, Vervoordt was one of the first art-and-design figures to display contemporary works with antiquities, a practice that is now relatively widespread.)

‘I love the diversity of Suzanne and Joris’s pieces,’ he says. ‘They weren’t focused on any particular style or period. They were focused instead on human expression, on serenity, and on noble ideas.’

The collectors would remain close friends with Vervoordt and his wife May until Onzea’s death in 2010, frequently attending parties and concerts together, and also enjoying many glasses of wine in each other’s company.

The relationship extended to travel, the two couples taking trips together both to the Salzburg Festival and, less literally, through Govaerts and Onzea’s home. ‘With the quality and scope of their collection, one was able to travel easily from East to West, and from old times to new. It was an inspiring journey.’

The Onzea-Govaerts Collection — curated by Axel Vervoordt is on view at Christie’s in Paris from 21 to 27 March 2025, before the sale on 27 March