Royal Museums of the Art schools of Belgium

The royal Museums of the Art schools of Belgium , located at Brussels, preserve some twenty thousand works, paintings, sculptures and drawings. They comprise the Musée of old Art (), installed in the building designed by the architect Alphonse Balat, constuit between 1885 and 1890 to shelter the first Palate of Art schools, the Musée of Modern art (), the museum Antoine Wiertz and the museum Constantin Meunier.

History

In 1794, many works were seized by the revolutionary French and were gathered. Four years later, Guillaume Bosschaert was designated as conservative of works gathered, and endeavoured to recover other seized works. The museum opened its doors in 1803. It is only into 1803 that the town of Brussels became owner about it.

Under the Dutch mode, the king Guillaume Ier tried to increase the collections and the building of the old Court (where still acutellement the museum is).

After the independence of Belgium, the museum which belonged to the town of Brussels is yielded at the Belgian State. A section devoted to modern Belgian art was added to the existing Museum in 1845. 1919, the museum changed name: “Royal Museum of the Art schools of Belgium”. This name was again changed by its final name in 1927: “Royal Museums of the Art schools of Belgium”.

Museum of old Art

The Museum of old Art includes/understands a vast collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings of XVe at the XVIIIe century. The essence of the collection is formed around painting of old the southernmost Netherlands, and is presented by chronological order. One finds there for example the invaluable panels of Primitive Flemish (of which Rogier van der Weyden, Petrus Christus, Dirk Bouts, Hans Memling and Jerome Bosch), a room devoted to Bruegel, Pierre-Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens or Antoine Van Dyck.

Museum of Modern art

One finds there works of the end of the XVIIIe century until the contemporary period, with artists such as Rene Magritte, Paul Delvaux, James Ensor, Paul Klee, Marc Chagall, or Pablo Picasso, The collections of the XIXe century are exposed in the neo-classic building giving on the place Royale. The tables, sculptures and drawings are distributed there on six stages.

The Department of Modern art also includes/understands the Musées Antoine Wiertz and Constantin Meunier.

Practical informations

Rue de la Régence 3,1000 Brussels Opened 10:00 with 17:00 Tel.: 32.2/508.32.11 Fax: 32.2/508.32.32

External bond

official Bond
Catalog of the royal Museums of the Art schools of Belgium

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