As the ‘Capital of Art Nouveau’, it’s fitting that Brussels would open a museum that features a nice collection of works from this modern movement. The Musée Fin-de-Siècle Museum is that museum, and its collection, which includes more than just Art Nouveau, is definitely one worth seeing.
The Fin-de-Siècle Museum, which opened to the public in 2013, is one of several collections within the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, and as the name indicates, spotlights the artwork produced around the ‘end of the century’ – primarily the art of Belgium and France at the turn of the 20th century. The various art movements represented in the museum’s collection, in addition to Art Nouveau, include Neo- and Post-impressionism, Realism, and Symbolism.
Several of the more well-known sculptors, designers, and artists whose work is featured in the museum’s collection include Auguste Rodin, Victor Horta, James Ensor, Paul Gauguin, Paul Signac, and Georges Seurat.
Some of what you’ll see includes:
Orange Market at Blida – Henri Evenepoel, 1898
The Chalk Sellers (At Noon) – Léon Frederic, 1883
White and Black, In the Coolness of the Shade – Herman Richir
Ixelles, Rainy Morning – Guillaume Vogels, 1883
Portrait of Edmond Picard – Jan Roorop, 1895
The Black Country. Borinage – Constantin Meunier
Dancing Nymphs – Constant Montald
At the Edge of the Woods. Landscape. Spring. – Alfred Sisley, 1885
Festival at Les Invalides – Henri Evenepoel, 1898
The Cellar at the Soleil d’Or – Henri Evenepoel, 1896
And the remarkable monochromatic Garden Under the Snow, 1916 by Constant Montald.
Some of our favorites in the pointillist collection are:
Faits du Village. VII. Girl Darning – Henry van de Velde, 1890
The Seine at Le Grande-Jatte – Georges Seurat, 1888
Portrait of Mrs Charles Maus – Theo van Rysselberghe, 1890
Coastal Landscape – Alfred William Finch, 1892
The Calanque – Paul Signac, 1906
and the paintings by Belgian expressionist painter and founding member of Les XX, James Ensor. These include:
The Lighthouse at Ostend, 1885
The Drunks, 1883
Carnival on the Beach, 1887
The Bad Doctors, 1892
The Strange Masks, 1892
The Scandalized Masks, 1883
The museum’s collection also contains works in other mediums, such as film, photography,
scale models of opera stage sets, as well as the impressive Gillion Crowet collection. Donated to the museum by Baron and Baroness Gillion Crowet, this collection features over 230 works of decorative art.
You’ll see tables, including Victor Horta’s sycamore and marble Aubecq Table (ca. 1900), chairs, desks, an artist’s easel,
and a fireplace with human-like features by Désiré Muller.
Other items in the Gillion Crowet collection include decorative lamps and light fixtures of molded glass in the shape of flowers, like the magnificent Magnolias from 1903 by Antonin Daum and
Louis Majorelle, glazed tilework,
marble and bronze statues and reliefs, such as Seated Lady (ca. 1893) by Paul DuBois,
Immortality (1881-1884) by Paul de Vigne,
Human Passions by Josef Lambeaux, 1889-1899, and a few of our favorites,
Nature by Alphonse Mucha ca. 1900,
and The Thinker
and Fallen Caryatid Carrying her Stone, two works by Auguste Rodin created between 1880 and 1899.
The Fin de Siècle Museum also provides a multimedia display showcasing the Art Nouveau Architecture of Brussels.
Getting there:
Musée Fin-de-Siècle is located in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts (Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts) building at Rue de la Régence / Regentschapsstraat 3.
Ticket Info:
Adult Admission (age 26 – 64) = 8.00€; Combo Ticket (Old Masters + Magritte + Modern + Fin-de-Siècle) = 13.00€
Adult Admission (ages 65 and older) = 6.00€; Combo Ticket = 9.00€
Child/Young Adult Admission (ages 4 – 25) = 2.00€; Combo Ticket = 3.00€
FREE on first Wednesday of each month, after 1:00 p.m.
FREE with the Brussels Card
Travel tips:
The ticket line can be long. Holders of the Brussels Card are allowed to skip this line and go directly into the Musée Fin-de-Siècle Museum, printed at home or stored on a mobile phone.
The entrance to the Fin-de-Siècle Museum, which occupies a subterranean portion of the Fine Arts building, is to the right of the atrium just inside the building’s main entrance.
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Mike Young
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Musée Fin-de-Siècle Museum
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By Things to do in Brussels see the Musée F... 20 Sep ’15 at 5:19 pm
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