Royal Museums of Fine Arts
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts ( French: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique , Dutch: Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België ) house the collections of paintings and sculptures of the Belgian state in Brussels . The museums include the Museum of Ancient Art and the Museum of Modern Art, which are located in the immediate vicinity of the Royal Palace, the neighboring houses of the Fin-de-Siècle Museum and the Magritte Museum , as well as the Antoine Wiertz Museum and the Constantin Meunier Museum in Ixelles .
history
During the occupation of the Austrian Netherlands by the French revolutionary troops , numerous works of art were confiscated in Brussels from 1794 onwards. These were collected in warehouses and some were brought to Paris. After the Chaptal decree in 1801, the remaining collection served as the basis of the museum founded in Brussels, which opened to the public for the first time two years later in the palace of the Austrian governors . In the following years, other important works of art from this collection came to Paris, which only returned to Brussels together with other works after Napoleon's deposition. The museum has been owned by the city of Brussels since 1811. After the founding of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands under King William I, the museum and its collections were expanded considerably. In 1835, King Leopold I ordered the creation of a national museum for Belgian artists in what was now the Belgian capital. Seven years later the municipal and royal collections were merged, which from 1846 was called the Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures of Belgium . A separate department for contemporary art was set up last year.
In 1887, the new building designed by Alphonse Balat was opened on Rue de la Régence, which has since housed the Department of Ancient Art. The collection of works of art from the 19th century remained in the former palace of the Habsburgs. It was not until almost 100 years later that the museum received an extension for the collection of the Department of Modern Art, which has since grown to include 20th century art. This building designed by Roger Bastin is located on the Rue de Musée. The exhibition rooms are partially arranged underground around a semicircular light shaft and were inaugurated in 1984. In 2009 the Magritte Museum, dedicated to the Belgian surrealist René Magritte , opened in the adjacent building of the Hôtel Altenloh . Since 2013, the newly created Fin-de-Siècle Museum has been housed in the building previously used as the Museum of Modern Art. A separate house for the collections of the 20th and 21st centuries (Musée Modern Museum) is also to be built in the future.
Collections
Museum of Ancient Art
The collection of the Museum für Alte Kunst includes around 1,200 works of European art from the 14th to the 18th centuries. The focus is on Flemish painting, with almost all artists represented with important works. The most important paintings include The Annunciation of Robert Campin , a Pietà and two portraits by Rogier van der Weyden , several religious representations by Dierick Bouts , Petrus Christus and Hugo van der Goes , some portraits and the Martyrdom of St Sebastian by Hans Memling , the Virgin with the Child and a triptych of the Brotherhood of St. Anne of the Lion by Quentin Massys and a Venus with Cupid and two portraits of the donors by Jan Mabuse .
The museum owns entire groups of works by Pieter Brueghel the Elder , Peter Paul Rubens , Jacob Jordaens and Anthonis van Dyck . You can see Brueghel's The Fall of the Resistant Angels , The Adoration of the Magi , Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Traps , The Census of Bethlehem , Landscape with the Fall of Icarus and the Yawns . The museum u. a. Christ and the Adulteress , Negro Heads , The Adoration of the Magi , The Carrying of the Cross , The Martyrdom of St. Livinius , The Martyrdom of St. Ursula , Landscape with the Hunt of Atalantes , Portrait of Peter Pecquius , The Miracles of St. Benedict , The Fall of Icarus , The Fall of the Titans and a Coronation of Mary . Jacob Jordaens can see the pictures Homage to Pomona , Saint Martin heals a man possessed , Susanna with the old men , Pan and Syrinx, and Satyr and Farmer , by Jacob Jordaens . The paintings of Anthony van Dyck in the museum include a portrait of Jean-Charles della Faille , a portrait of Franz Duquesnoy , a portrait of a Genoese lady and her daughter , Rinaldo and Armida and a crucifixion of Christ .
Other paintings in Flemish painting include an outdoor wedding by Pieter Brueghel the Younger , The Larder and The Deer Hunt by Frans Snyders , Drinkers at the Table by Adriaen Brouwer , Flemish Fair , The Card Players and a Still Life by David Teniers the Younger .
Dutch painting is represented in the museum with few, but high-quality pictures. These include a group of children and some portraits by Frans Hals , the portrait of Nicolaas van Bambeeck by Rembrandt , The Common Glass by Pieter de Hooch , The Meal by Gabriel Metsu and a view of the Haarlemersee by Jacob Izaaksoon van Ruisdael .
Examples of French painting in the museum are Aeneas hunting deer on the coast of Libya by Claude Lorrain , fountain and portico in a park by Hubert Robert and the portrait of George Gougenot de Croissy by Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Other important works are The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David and Auguste écoutant la lecture de l'Enéide by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres .
Italian painting is represented in the museum with some artists from the Venetian school. These include a Virgin with Child and a St. Francis by Carlo Crivelli , The Martyrdom of St. Mark by Jacopo Tintoretto , The Divine Virtues by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and a vedute by Francesco Guardi .
By Lucas Cranach the Elder , the museum has next to Adam and Eve and Venus and Cupid the well-known portrait of Dr. Scheyring , which was reproduced on the 1000 DM note in Germany for many years .
Exhibited works
Dieric Bouts:
Trial by Fire of the Countess before Otto III.
Robert Campin:
The Annunciation
Hans Memling:
Portrait of Willem Moreel
Rogier van der Weyden:
portrait of the great bastard Anton of Burgundy
Pieter Bruegel the Elder Ä .:
Census in Bethlehem
Lucas Cranach the Elder Ä .:
Portrait of Dr. Scheyring
Frans Snyders:
Deer Hunt
Anthonis van Dyck:
Portrait of the sculptor François Duquesnoy
Jakob Jordaens:
Satyr with the farmer
Peter Paul Rubens:
Coronation of Mary
Fin-de-Siècle Museum
The museum, which opened in 2013, shows works of art from the period 1868 to 1914, with a focus on Belgian artists. The collection includes sculptures by Constantin Meunier , which often depict workers and miners. The museum owns a Salomé by Alfred Stevens , the most famous representative of Belgian Impressionism , while Guillaume Vogels is represented with La neige, soir and Emile Claus with La récolte du lin and Les asters . There are also important artists of the turn of the century such as Henry van de Velde with Faits du village. VII. La fille qui remaille , Théo van Rysselberghe with La promenade , James Ensor with La musique russe and Fernand Khnopff , of whom the museum is showing the famous work The Tenderness of the Sphinx .
Further works from the 19th century are a Paysage à Ornans by Gustave Courbet and a Portrait de Mlles Louise Riesener et Eva Callimaki-Catargi by Henri Fantin-Latour . The works of French artists at the turn of the century include the portrait of Suzanne Bambridge by Paul Gauguin , The Seine on the Grand Jatte, Spring by Georges Seurat , La calanque by Paul Signac , Les deux écoliers by Édouard Vuillard , a landscape by Maurice de Vlaminck and Auguste Rodin's sculpture Cariatide tombée portant sa pierre . There are also The Wedding of the Psyche by Edward Burne-Jones , Vincent van Gogh's depiction of a farmer from 1885 and a flower still life by Lovis Corinth .
Exhibited works
Paul Gauguin:
Portrait of Suzanne Bambridge
Theo van Rysselberghe:
La Promenade
Georges Seurat:
The Seine on the Grand Jatte, spring
Vincent van Gogh:
Head of a Peasant
Emile Claus:
Vaches traversant la Lys
Museum of Modern Art
Since opening in 1984, the museum has shown works of art from the 19th century to the present day. After the Magritte Museum opened in 2009, the Museum of Modern Art was closed. The newly created Fin-de-Siècle Museum has been housed in the former building of the museum since 2013. A separate house is planned for the art of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Vanderborght building in the city center near the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert is planned for this . A selection of modern art works can be seen in temporary exhibitions in the Museum of Ancient Art until a new house is opened.
The museum's collection includes several works by the surrealists . The museum Le couple , Pygmalion and Train du soir by Paul Delvaux owns a typical railway motif for the artist. This work is complemented by L'armée céleste by Max Ernst and one of the most popular pictures in this section, The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Salvador Dalí .
Painters Pierre Alechinsky , Asger Jorn and Karel Appel can be seen in the museum by the artist group CoBrA , of which Brussels was one of the centers . The paintings of classical modernism in the museum include the portrait of Ernst Reinhold by Oskar Kokoschka , Two Children by Otto Dix , a view of Marseille by Raoul Dufy , Danseuse espagnole by Joan Miró , Les raisins by Georges Braque , Guitare et compotier by Pablo Picasso , Clair de lune , Moi et le village and Moi, Marc Chagall by Marc Chagall , L'éclipse by Francis Picabia and a flower garden by Emil Nolde and the sculpture Mirr by Hans Arp .
The works Le burg dévasté by Jean Dubuffet , Le pape aux hiboux by Francis Bacon , Homage to the Square by Josef Albers and sculptures by Henri Laurens , Rik Wouters and a mobile by Alexander Calder date from the period after the Second World War . The internationally oriented collection of contemporary art shows works by Dado , Jannis Kounellis , Donald Judd , Ian Hamilton Finlay , Sol LeWitt , Francis Bacon, Dan Flavin , Panamarenko and Thomas Ruff . The group of works by the Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers is particularly extensive .
Artist museums
In addition to the Magritte Museum in the city center, which opened in 2009, there are two artists 'museums in Brussels' Ixelles district , which are also part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts. The Antoine Wiertz Museum has been open to the public since 1868 , while the Constantin Meunier Museum has only been part of the Royal Museums since 1978.
literature
- Roger-A. d'Hulst et al .: Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels, Old Art 1977
- Françoise Roberts-Jones-Popelier: Chronique d'un musée. Musées royaux des beaux-arts de Belgique / Bruxelles Pierre Mardaga 1987 ISBN 2-87009-298-9
Web links
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts (English / French / Dutch)
Coordinates: 50 ° 50 '30.8 " N , 4 ° 21' 28.1" E