Since the 6th of December 2013, the general public is now able to discover the latest addition to Belgium’s already impressive list of museums. Four years after the opening of the Musée Magritte Museum, which marked the first stage in the redeployment of the federal collections, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are trumpeting the arrival of the second stage with the birth of a new museum, Fin-de-Siècle Museum, that will place Belgian heritage at the centre of the international scene.
The Musée Fin-de-Siècle Museum presents Brussels as Europe’s creative crossroads at the turn of the century. Thanks to the Salons of Les XX (1883–1894) and La Libre Esthétique (1894–1914), artists met each other and created works and objets d’art of exceptional richness.
This artistic dynamism is presented in an attractive, modern exhibition design. Visitors find themselves immersed in the atmosphere of 1900, thanks to a combination of exhibits that range across the arts, from philosophy to poetry, from architecture to painting, from photography to literature. The public will be able to relive this period of change, of transition from the 19th to the 20th century through the emergence of new artistic movements: Impressionism, Realism, neo-Impressionism, post-Impressionism and Symbolism.
Within this wealth of artistic achievement, the specific contribution of Belgian artists such as Jean Delville, Henri Evenepoel, Constantin Meunier, Emile Claus, Théo Van Rysselberghe, Félicien Rops, and Léon Spilliaert is highlighted. They will share the walls with foreign artists such as Paul Gauguin, Auguste Rodin, Pierre Bonnard, Emile Gallé, Louis Majorelle, and Alphonse Mucha, among others.
This new creation was possible due to a combination of museum muscle, university assistance, plus aid from La Monnaie/De Munt, the King Baudouin Foundation, Brussels-Capital Region (which has made available the extraordinary Gillion Crowet collection, one of the highlights of the new venue), the King Baudouin Foundation and the Belgian Buildings Agency.
It’s well worth getting a Combi ticket €13 which gives you access to Magritte, Modern, Oldmasters and Fin-de-Siècle.
3 Rue de la Régence/Regentschapsstraat
1000 Brussels
