Magritte Museum

The Magritte Museum opened in 2009 in a wing of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts on Place Royale and holds around two hundred and thirty works, the largest collection of Rene Magritte anywhere, arranged chronologically down three floors from the top: the early years and the surrealist breakthrough in Paris, the wartime Renoir and vache periods when he deliberately painted badly, and the late work that produced the images everybody knows. Alongside the paintings are gouaches, drawings, photographs, films he made himself, advertising work he did for a living, and letters. The chronological hang is the value of it, because it puts the famous images in a working life rather than presenting them as isolated icons.

History

The museum is housed in the Hôtel du Lotto, a five-storey neoclassical town house of the late 18th century, part of the ensemble built after the Coudenberg Palace burned in 1731. The Place Royale outside saw fighting in the Belgian Revolution and the swearing-in of King Leopold I on 21 July 1831, the house was a hotel for travellers for more than a century and then a jeweller's, its facades were protected in 1951, and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts took it over in 1962, renovating it thoroughly in the 1980s (Wikipedia, Magritte Museum).

What's there

• Around 230 works in one place - the largest Magritte holding anywhere.
• The vache and Renoir periods - the deliberately bad painting of the 1940s.
• Films and photographs by Magritte - his own home movies and images.
• Commercial and advertising work - the jobs that paid for the painting.

When to go

Year round. Two hours. Closed Mondays. Book ahead in summer and at weekends, when timed entry sells out. The combined ticket with the other fine arts museums is worth taking.

Things to know

Some of the best-known Magrittes are in New York and elsewhere, not here. The chronological descent from the top floor confuses people arriving at the bottom. It is busy and the rooms are small. Photography is restricted.

Nearby

The Fine Arts Museums share the building; Mont des Arts is below.

Key facts