Magritte Museum
The Magritte Museum ( French: Musée Magritte , Dutch Magritte Museum ) is a museum in Brussels dedicated to the Belgian painter René Magritte . It is part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts and is located in the immediate vicinity of the Museum of Ancient Art and the Museum of Modern Art in the city center of the Belgian capital. The museum is the second Magritte museum in the greater Brussels area and houses the largest collection of the artist's works in the world.
history
René Magritte, who died in 1967, is one of the most famous Belgian painters of the 20th century. After the death of his widow in 1986, the first idea arose to convert the last apartment of the Magrittes, a villa in Rue des Mimosas / Mimosasstraat No. 97 in Schaerbeek / Schaarbeek , into a museum. At this point in time, the Antoine Wiertz Museum and the Constantin Meunier Museum already existed as branches of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels. Despite numerous calls to keep the artist's last home as a museum, the project failed due to a lack of financial resources and the lack of support from state institutions. The household was dissolved and the inventory, including Magritte's personal belongings, was auctioned off.
In the following years, the Antwerp-born art collector André Garitte acquired numerous pieces from the Magrittes' property and also bought the apartment building at 135 rue Esseghem / Esseghemstraat in the Brussels suburb of Jette , on the ground floor of which Magritte lived from 1930 to 1954 . He opened the privately run René Magritte Museum here in 1999 . In addition to a few works of art by Magritte, you will find the largely originally furnished apartment of the artist and numerous memorabilia from his life. A comprehensive presentation of Magritte's artistic work was not possible in these rooms.
The Magritte Foundation and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels , on the other hand, have such an extensive inventory of works of art by Magritte . Due to lack of space, the latter was only able to show a small selection of these works to the public in the Brussels Museum of Modern Art. On the initiative of Michel Draguet , Magritte expert and General Director of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels, the idea arose to dedicate an artists' museum to Magritte in the center of the Belgian capital. The models for this museum were the successful artist museums for Vincent van Gogh in Amsterdam and Paul Klee in Bern. To implement the project, the Royal Museums joined forces with the Magritte Foundation and, as a sponsor, the energy supplier GDF Suez . After ten years of preparation, the opening took place on May 20, 2009 by the Belgian King Albert II and Queen Paola . The museum will be open to the public from June 2, 2009.
The Hôtel Altenloh
The Magritte Museum is located in the Hôtel Altenloh , a classicist palace from the 18th century. The building is located on Koningsplein / Place Royale No. 1–2 opposite the Saint-Jacques-sur-Coudenberg church . The Museum of Ancient Art and the Museum of Modern Art of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts are in the immediate vicinity. The Hôtel Altenloh belonged to the Royal Museums even before it was used as a Magritte Museum and was extensively renovated and equipped with modern museum technology for the new purpose. After the renovation, the museum has an area of 2,500 m² on six floors, two of which are underground. The entrance area and three exhibition levels above are now located on the formerly three floors above ground. The museum has a library, a museum shop and a multimedia center on the two basement floors. The museum management expects 650,000 visitors annually.
The collection
The Magritte Museum shows around 200 paintings by René Magritte in its exhibition and thus houses the world's largest collection of works by the artist. The Royal Museums for Fine Arts in Brussels received a number of paintings from René Magritte as a gift during his lifetime. This example was followed by his widow Georgette Magritte, the surrealist poet Paul Scutenaire , who was friends with the artist, and his wife Irene Hamoir Scutenaire. In addition, the Royal Museums acquired some of Magritte's works on the art market. In the Magritte Museum there are also 50 exhibits on loan from Magritte's estate administrator Charly Herscovici and other loans from private individuals.
The presentation of the exhibition is structured over three floors according to various work phases. On the top floor, the museum shows Magritte's early work up to 1929. In addition to an introduction to Magritte's work, his paintings The Midnight Wedding (Le Mariage de Minuit) and The Secret Gambler (Le Joueur Secret) can be seen here. On the floor below, the exhibition is dedicated to the years up to 1950. Here Magritte's work as a commercial artist is presented and his stay in Paris is documented. During this time he came into contact with the international surrealists . Magritte's works from the time of the Second World War can also be seen on this floor. Among the well-known pictures of this time, the museum shows the painting Die Schwarze Magie (La Magie Noire) from 1945 . The lowest exhibition level shows Magritte's life and work from 1950 until his death in 1967. Many of his best-known works can be found here, such as The Reign of Light (L'Empire de Lumières) , The Return (Le Retour) , The Search for Truth ( La Recherche de la vérité) , The Blank Page (La Page blanche) , Heavenly Bird (L'Oiseau de Ciel) and The Domaine of Arnhem (Le Domaine d'Arnheim) .
In addition to paintings, the museum's collection includes numerous watercolors, gouaches, drawings, posters, sculptures and painted vases. The museum also documents Magritte's life with many photos and films, some of which were taken by Magritte himself or his friends. There is also an important collection of archive material on Magritte. This includes Magritte's manuscripts and personal letters. For example, since 2008 the Magritte archive has been in possession of the correspondence with the art critic Paul-Gustave Van Hecke , who, as the gallery owner and publisher of the Sélection magazine , made surrealism known in Belgium.
Web links
- Website of the Magritte Museum (French / Dutch / English)
Coordinates: 50 ° 50 ′ 32 ″ N , 4 ° 21 ′ 31 ″ E