Oldmasters Museum

The Oldmasters Museum is located in Brussels' Royal Quarter and is dedicated to European painting and sculpture by the Old Masters from the 15th to the 18th century. Part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, it houses an internationally significant collection of Netherlandish art, focused above all on the area of present-day Belgium. Here you can admire masterpieces of the Flemish Primitives, including works by Robert Campin, Rogier van der Weyden, Hieronymus Bosch, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The collection also includes major paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens, as well as works by Dutch artists such as Rembrandt and Frans Hals. One particular highlight is the second-largest Bruegel collection in the world, which includes "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," a painting made world-famous by a poem by W. H. Auden.

The museum's history goes back to 1801, when it was founded by Napoleon. Originally housed in the Palace of Charles of Lorraine, the collection moved in 1887 to its present building on the Rue de la Régence. This monumental structure, known as the Palace of Fine Arts, was designed by the architect Alphonse Balat and opened in 1880 under King Leopold II. The building's style is eclectic with classical influences and is defined by a rich sculptural program on the facade, featuring allegorical figures of music, architecture, sculpture, and painting. Inside, the large central hall, which serves as a forum and is topped by a dome with a lantern skylight, is particularly impressive.

The museum offers not only a chronological presentation of Flemish painting but also works from the Italian and French schools. Alongside the historical paintings, you can also see drawings and sculptures from various periods. The complex was expanded and renovated several times in the 20th century to give the collections adequate space. Today the museum invites you to experience the development of European art across several centuries, set in an architecturally impressive environment that is itself a work of art.