MAGRITTE MUSEUM

Description

Essentials about the Magritte Museum in brief

Art fans should not miss a visit to the Magritte Museum in Brussels. The museum is dedicated to the famous Belgian painter René Magritte and houses the world’s largest collection of the artist’s works in its exhibition with around 200 paintings, drawings, posters and sculptures. The Magritte Museum is housed in the Hôtel Altenloh, an 18th century neoclassical palace on Place Royale.

The history of the Magritte Museum

After the death of Magritte’s widow in 1986, the idea initially arose to convert the Magrittes’ last home, a villa in Rue des Mimosas in the Schaerbeek district, into a museum. Despite numerous calls to preserve the artist’s last residence as a museum, the project failed due to a lack of funding and support from government institutions. The household was dissolved, and the inventory, including Magritte’s personal possessions, was sold at auction.

In the years that followed, Antwerp-born art collector André Garitte acquired numerous pieces from the Magrittes’ estate and also purchased the tenement house on Rue Esseghem in the Brussels suburb of Jette, where Magritte lived from 1930 to 1954. Garitte opened the privately run René Magritte Museum here in 1999. In addition to a few works of art by Magritte, the museum contains the artist’s apartment, which is largely furnished in its original form, as well as numerous mementos from his life. However, a comprehensive presentation of Magritte’s artistic work was not possible in these rooms.

In contrast, the Magritte Foundation and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels had such an extensive collection of Magritte’s works of art. The latter, however, was only able to show a small selection of these works to the public in the Brussels Museum of Modern Art due to lack of space. On the initiative of Michel Draguet, Magritte expert and Director General of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels, the idea was born to dedicate an artist’s museum to Magritte in the center of the Belgian capital. After ten years of preparation, the Magritte Museum was opened in 2009.

The building of the Magritte Museum

The Magritte Museum is located in the Hôtel Altenloh, a neoclassical palace from the 18th century. The building is located on Place Royale, opposite the church of Saint-Jacques-sur-Coudenberg. The Museum of Ancient Art and the Museum of Modern Art of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts are also in the immediate vicinity.

The Hôtel Altenloh was extensively renovated to house the Magritte Museum, and after the renovation has 2,500 square meters of space on six floors. The entrance area and the exhibition levels are located on the four floors above ground. On the two basement floors, the museum has a library, a museum store and a multimedia center.

The collection of the Magritte Museum

The Magritte Museum’s exhibition features around 200 paintings by René Magritte, making it home to the world’s largest collection of works by the artist. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels already received some paintings as a gift from René Magritte during his lifetime. This was followed by his widow Georgette Magritte, the surrealist poet Paul Scutenaire, who was a friend of the artist, and his wife. In addition, the Royal Museums acquired some of Magritte’s works on the art market. The Magritte Museum also has 50 exhibits on loan from Magritte’s executor and other loans from private individuals.

The presentation of the exhibition is divided according to different phases of the work over three floors. On the top floor, the museum shows Magritte’s early work up to 1929. On the floor below, the exhibition is devoted to the creative years up to 1950, when Magritte’s work as a commercial artist is presented and his stay in Paris is documented. His contact with the international Surrealists falls into this period. Magritte’s works from the period of World War II are also on display on this floor. The lowest level of the exhibition shows Magritte’s life and work from 1950 until his death in 1967, and includes many of his best-known works.

In addition to paintings, the museum’s collection includes numerous watercolors, gouaches, drawings, posters, sculptures and painted vases. Furthermore, the museum documents Magritte’s life with many photographs and films, some of which were taken by Magritte himself or by his friends. In addition, there is an important collection of archival material on Magritte. Among them are manuscripts of Magritte and personal letters.