Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1.3. Royal Museums of Fine Arts
Any art fans travelling to Brussels will love the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, which is a
collection of 4 museums (Old Masters Museum, Modern Museum, Fin de Siècle Museum
and Magritte Museum) that are connected to each other in the heart of Brussels, making
this one of the most important cultural sites in the capital. The four museums contain over
20,000 artworks from the 15th century to the present day, and the collection includes paint-
ings, drawings, sculptures, and installations.
This complex of museums is particularly famous for housing a large and prominent collec-
tion of Flemish paintings from the likes of Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens. And of
course, no museum of Flemish painting would be completed without work from Rubens,
and this museum contains a complete Rubens Room and over 20 paintings from the great
Flemish artist.
For those with more contemporary tastes, these museums will also not disappoint, with ro-
tating temporary exhibitions from the likes of Jean Dypreau.
The Magritte Museum is worth a special mention, as it's one of our favourites in Brussels.
This museum opened to the public in 2009, and displays around 200 paintings, sculptures
and photographs from René Magritte, a well renowned Belgian artist who rose to fame with
his Surrealist work.
