The Royal Museums of Fine Arts is Belgium's national art collection — a complex of six museums sharing interconnected buildings near the Royal Palace that together hold over 20,000 works spanning six centuries, from the Flemish Primitives through Bruegel and Rubens to Magritte and contemporary Belgian art. The Old Masters Museum and the Magritte Museum are the essential visits, and together they justify Brussels' claim to be one of the most important art cities in Europe.
The Old Masters collection is one of the finest in the world for Flemish painting. Bruegel the Elder's 'The Fall of the Rebel Angels' and 'Census at Bethlehem,' Rubens' 'The Ascent to Calvary,' and works by Van der Weyden, Memling, and Bosch represent the golden age of Flemish art in a gallery setting that — unlike the Louvre or the National Gallery — is rarely crowded enough to prevent close looking. The ability to stand inches from a Bruegel without a crowd is a luxury that few European museums still offer.
The Magritte Museum, occupying a neoclassical building adjacent to the Old Masters gallery, houses the world's largest collection of works by René Magritte — over 200 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by the Belgian surrealist whose bowler-hatted men, floating rocks, and pipe-that-is-not-a-pipe have become some of the most recognisable images in modern art. The museum's chronological arrangement traces Magritte's development from early Impressionist-influenced works to the mature surrealism that made him famous, and the experience of seeing dozens of Magrittes in sequence is genuinely disorienting — which is exactly what Magritte intended.
Verified Facts
The Royal Museums hold over 20,000 works across six museums
The Magritte Museum houses over 200 works, the world's largest Magritte collection
The collection includes major works by Bruegel the Elder and Rubens
The museums are located near the Royal Palace
Get walking directions
Rue de la Régence 3, 1000 Brussels
