Discover Flemish primitive art at the Groeninge Museum in Bruges

If you had to visit just one museum in Bruges, it would surely be the most emblematic, the Museum of Fine Arts, known as the Groeninge Museum. Created in the 1930s on the site of the former Eekout Abbey, the current museum was built by Joseph Viérin, architect and former alderman of the city of Bruges. The city's aim was to centralise the works of the Academy of Fine Arts, which were scattered all over the city. In addition, many of the paintings were very difficult to recover. In 1995, an extension to a neighbouring neo-Gothic building designed by the architect Jean-Baptiste Bethune was made available to the museum.

With one of the city's richest collections, the Groeninge Museum holds iconic and world-famous works. Here, a rich panorama of the history of Belgian visual arts is on display. You can admire works by the famous Flemish primitive painters Jan Van Eyck, Hans Memling and Gerard David. You can admire Jan Van Eyck's "The Virgin and Child with Canon Van de Paele" and Hans Memling's Moreel triptych. You can also admire neoclassical works, Flemish expressionism, surrealism and modern art of the 20th century. For example, there is a work by Magritte, the famous Belgian surrealist painter, "l'Attentat", which he painted in oil in 1932.

The galleries take you on a journey through six centuries of art. There are a large number of historical paintings, as well as floral paintings and absolutely monumental canvases, such as those by Jacob Van Oost, who was the main painter in Bruges in the 17th century, and whose paintings often exceed two metres in height, such as "Portrait of a Bruges family" or "Portrait of a theologian and his secretary", which he painted shortly before his death. There are also several paintings by the Flemish primitive Hieronymus Bosch, including "The Last Judgement" and "The Triptych".

In addition to the Flemish primitives that have made Belgian and Dutch art famous, there are also more recent paintings dating from recent decades. The neoclassical painters of Bruges left their mark on the 18th century and form an impressive collection in the Groeninge Museum. Artists such as Joseph-Benoît Suvée, Jean Bernard Duvivier, Joseph Ducq, Joseph Odevaere and François Joseph Kinsoen trained in Bruges and went on to make an international career there, producing historical paintings and refined portraits. The 19th and 20th centuries were also marked by the emergence of Expressionism, with works by Permeke, De Smet, Van de Woestyne and Brusselmans, some six works by Georges Van Tongerloo, paintings by Paul Delvaux and René Magritte, and post-war works by Raoul De Keyser and Roger Raveel. The Groeninge Museum also owns almost all the texts published by Marcel Broodthaers. This polymorphous Belgian artist was a poet, visual artist, film-maker and photographer. He stood out in the art world of the 20th century, particularly in Dadaism, Pop Art, Surrealism and Conceptual Art. Some of his works are also exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

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Magritte's assassination attempt on show at the Groeninge Museum

The Groeninge Museum owes its reputation not only to its outstanding exhibition of Belgian art. It also has a room where various temporary exhibitions are held. These include presentations, study projects and exhibitions that often have an international impact.

Find out more about current temporary exhibitions at the Groeninge Museum:

https://www.museabrugge.be/fr/calendrier/expositions&utm_source=easyvoyage