Brussels

Opening
on 2nd June 2009

Magritte
MUSÉE MUSEUM
© Suez
The Dominion of Light (L’Empire des lumières), 1954,
© Charly Herscovici, with his kind permission
c/o SABAM-ADAGP, 2008

www.musee-magritte-museum.be
 René Magritte
Magritte is the 20th century’s most important
Belgian painter and one of the ten best-known
in the world.
René Magritte, the brilliant magician of the visible,
was born at Lessines in the province of Hainaut,
Belgium, on 21st November 1898. His father was
a merchant-tailor. The family moved to Châtelet.
René was 14 when his mother threw herself into
the river Sambre. She was found dead a few days
later, her face covered by her nightdress. The
terrible force of this image was to resurface time
and again in Magritte’s work.
In 1917, he moved to Brussels. René studied
painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and married
Georgette, whom he had met in Charleroi. She was
to be his companion, model and Muse. To make
ends meet, Magritte took on a job as a graphic
designer in a wallpaper factory.
In the 20s, he met his fellow surrealists: Marcel
Lecomte, E.L.T. Mesens, Camille Goemans, André
Souris, Paul Nougé, Louis Scutenaire, a group
of writers and musicians who had been scarred
by the horrors of war and were determined to
throw off the shackles of convention. Among
them, Magritte, influenced by futurism and the
work of Chirico, was the only painter. His first
The Return (Le Retour), 1940
© Charly Herscovici, with his kind
authorization – c/o SABAM-ADAGP, 2008
exhibition was a fiasco. Disheartened, Magritte
took Georgette with him to Paris, where he got to
know the surrealists, Aragon, Breton and Eluard.
His paintings did not sell.
In 1930, the couple returned to Brussels. After
moving house several times, they settled in Jette,
rue Esseghem, where Magritte was to work for
24 years. In the garden, he opened an advertising
workshop; to paint, he preferred his dining room-
cum-workshop. Several features of this house —
the fireplace, the glass-panelled doors, the sash
windows, etc. — can be seen in his work. This
house, which has been open to the public since
1999, was also the headquarters of his Belgian
surrealist friends and from it emerged a mass of
subversive writings, reviews and pamphlets.
The group also liked to meet at the ‘La Fleur en
Papier Doré’, a tavern run by an art-dealer friend
of Magritte. In 1954, René and Georgette moved to
Schaerbeek, rue des Mimosas. It was there that
this man of petit-bourgeois appearance with his
bowler hat, pipe, cup-and-ball toy and leafless
trees died in August 1967. But supposing that
reality is not what we think it is?
Musée Magritte Museum
As an internationally renowned artist, the Belgian
painter, René Magritte, had to have a museum
worthy of his oeuvre in the heart of Brussels, his
adopted city. Wonderfully located in Place Royale, a
stone’s throw from the Grand-Place and the Palais
Royal, the Magritte Museum, which expects 650,000
visitors a year, is from now on one of the cultural
musts of Europe’s capital, indeed of the world.
Installed in the elegant, neo-classical Altenloh
mansion, which has been fully refurbished thanks
to a public-private partnership, it houses the
world’s largest collection of the great surrealist’s
works. In sum, 200 exceptional works, including
the most famous such as The Domination of Lights
(L’empire des lumières), The Secret Payer (Le Joueur
Secret), The Return (Le Retour), but also archival
material, correspondence, photographs, drawings,
gouaches, posters and films made by Magritte and
his friends, all of which had been collected over
a number of years by the Royal Museums of Fine
Arts of Belgium and the Magritte Foundation. In
© Suez
addition to these items, a number of unique works
have been lent by major private collectors.

Innovative scenography makes use of new

technologies to endow the Belgian artist with his
whole poetic truth. The items displayed occupy
three different levels of the building.

The visit starts on the third floor with Magritte’s

early work and the discovery of the principles on
which his oeuvre would be based. The Midnight
Marriage (Le Mariage de Minuit) is an early example
of a powerful work.

On level 2, lesser known themes are developed:

Magritte and advertising, confronted with the
war “en plein soleil” surrealism, Magritte and
communism, Black Magic (la Magie noire) and the
“Vache” period.

On level 1, the high points of the painter’s

life are shown to best effect and, above all, the
masterpieces: The Domination of Lights (L’Empire
des lumières), The search for the Truth (La Recherche
de la vérité), The Blank Page (L’Ile aux trésors) and
The Domain of Arnheim (Le Domaine d’Arnheim). All
Magritte is in these works, subversive and funny
yet never easy to fathom out.

Before leaving this fascinating universe, a final

glance at the façade of one of Europe’s most
modern museums. Set in the windows, screens
unveil a cloud-filled sky. Magritte’s sky.

The Man from the Sea (L’Homme du large), 1927

© Charly Herscovici, with his kind permission
c/o SABAM-ADAGP, 2008
 Surrealism
A movement which began in France in the 1920s and was
closely associated with the poet, André Breton, surrealism
sought to free man from the constraints of Western civilisation.
The artists expressed this revolt by invoking dreams and the
subconscious. In this way, they revealed another reality, one
that did not lack humour. For example, Magritte painted
a pipe and gave the work the title, This is not a Pipe! (Ceci
n’est pas une pipe!). Besides being an artistic movement, the
expression “Belgian surrealism” these days also describes
a spirit, one of irreverence, absurdity and derision, one that
permeates the everyday life of the inhabitants of Brussels.
You find it in the Brussels “zwanze”, a caustic, friendly type
of humour, and in the many contrasting faces of Brussels,
through its architecture, society, culture and gastronomy. It
permeates the metro stations and the cafés where Magritte
used to meet up with his friends!
Black Magic, (La magie noire), 1945
© Charly Herscovici, with his kind permission
c/o SABAM-ADAGP, 2008
Brussels
Mont des Arts
In the Mont des Arts quarter, midway between the city’s
highest and lowest points, Magritte and his imaginative
world live on in the Magritte Museum and in the Royal
Museums of Fine Arts. They rub shoulders with the
surrealist dreams of Paul Delvaux and the masters of an
earlier era such as Bosch, Bruegel and Rubens, without
whom Belgian identity would not be what it is today.
Art Nouveau
In the same Mont des Arts, Art Nouveau, the jewel of
Brussels creativity at the turn of the 20th century, is a
feature of the architecture of both the Centre for Fine Arts
(Bozar) and the Museum of Musical Instruments. Other Art
Nouveau masterpieces are to be found in the squares near
the European quarter. With Victor Horta, the figurehead of
this style, the reputation of Belgian architecture crossed
borders, something unthinkable in Brussels where to call
someone an “Architect” is an insult. Surrealist, you did say
surrealist?
Europe
A stone’s throw from the squares, in a surrealist mixture
only a native of Brussels could have imagined, the
European quarter with its steel and glass buildings is
home to the major European institutions. Its centrepiece
is the European Parliament. No, it’s not a whim of the
gods as some would have us believe! Nearby, the Antoine
Wiertz Museum, the hideout of a kitsch painter. Magritte
painted a variation of his Beautiful Rosine (Belle Rosine).
Comic strips
Tintin, Spirou, Gaston Lagaffe, Johan, Pirlouit, these are
just a few of the heroes dreamed up by Belgian strip
cartoon artists. They were the originators of comic strips
(the “9th art”), which as it happens will be to the fore in
2009 in Brussels and Wallonia, and which is loved by young
and old alike. Housed in an Art Nouveau building, the
Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art is the very expression
of this art form. And could a “Comic Strip Trail”, with walls
covered in cartoon characters, exist anywhere else than in
Brussels? As well as being hilarious, it is Great Art.
Mont des Arts
© Vanhulst
Discovering Surrealism
in Brussels
Reminders of the life and work of the surrealist
artist are to be found everywhere in Brussels.
Here are some of them:
La Fleur en papier doré
Magritte and the Belgian surrealists used to
meet regularly in this tavern, which was owned
by an art dealer and friend of Magritte. This site
And more
L’Académie, rue du Midi, which Magritte often went to
L’Eglise Ste Marie de Schaerbeek, where he married
Georgette
Le Ciel de Magritte at the Théâtre des Galeries
Wall painting of Magritte, Brussels Meeting Centre
(from September 2009)

Brussels Card
recently became a cultural centre in homage to
the surrealists.
Rue des Alexiens 55, 1000 Brussels. 24, 48, 72 hours
Free access to 26 museums, including Magritte
Le Greenwich Museum
Free use of the Brussels public transport system (STIB)
The chess players’ den, not far from the Brussels Reductions in restaurants, bars,
Stock Exchange. It was here that Magritte took shops and tourist attractions
part in some memorable games with his friends. Free city street plan
Free information guide
Rue des Chartreux 7, 1000 Brussels.
www.brusselsinternational.be
René Magritte Museum www.brusselscard.be

In this house situated in Jette, now converted into a Contracting :

museum, René and Georgette Magritte lived for 24 Anousjka Schmidt
years. The artist painted most of his major works a.schmidt@brusselsinternational.be
here, including The Empire of Lights. Once a week,

Guided tours of the City

his surrealist friends held their meetings here.
Rue Esseghem 135
1090 Brussels Arkadia
Tél.: + 32 2 428 26 26 www.asbl-arkadia.be
www.magrittemuseum.be Tel.: + 32 2 563 61 53

Pro Velo
www.provelo.org
Tel.: + 32 2 502 73 55

The Fair Captive (La Belle Captive), 1965

© Charly Herscovici, with his kind permission
c/o SABAM-ADAGP, 2008
 Practical information
Address of the Museum
Place Royale 1 – 1000 Brussels
Ticketing address: Rue de la Régence 3
1000 Brussels

for visiting the Museum

Tel. : +32 2 508.32.11

Museum website
www.musee-magritte-museum.be

Access :
Opening times
The Museum is accessible to disabled per- Car park: Albertine – Congrès, access via
Tuesdays to Sundays, 9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. sons : 2 Place Royale Rue des Sols or Place du Palais de Justice
Last admissions 4 p.m. Late night opening on
Wednesdays until 8 p.m. Closed on Mondays, Metro : Gare Central or Parc (line1) Overnight Car park:
1st January, 2nd Thursday of January, 1st May, Rail : Brussels Central MABRU (morning market)
1st and 11th November, 25th December. Trams : 92 et 94 Quai des Usines 22-23 - 1000 Brussels
Buses : 27, 29, 38, 71 et 95 Tel. : +32 2 215 5169
General information
Tel. : + 32 2 508 32 11
Fax : + 32 2 508 32 32
info@fine-arts-museum.be

Information,

Communications, Promotion

and Public Relations MRBA

Tel.: + 32 2 508 34 09
communication@fine-arts-museum.be

Ticketing
Timeslots: hourly

Rates: (to be confirmed)

Individuals: € 8, € 5 , € 2 • Groups (mini-

mum 15 persons): € 5 • School groups
with guided visit (Minimum 15 pupils): € 2
• Trade: € 5

Ticket reservation

(not available at the moment)

info@musee-magritte-museum.be
Tel. : +32 2 508.33.33
Ticket reservations from 2nd Avril 2009
Tel. Tour Operator : +32 2 508.34.56
Guided visits: Tel : +32 2 508.33.33 / French,
Dutch, English, German, Spanish and Italian.
No visits with external guides permitted • Tape
guide: 4 € / French, Dutch, English, German •
Catalogue: 15 €/ French, Dutch, English

Magritte Shop : 1 Place royale

Museum Brasserie : 3 Place royale
Museum Café : 3 Rue de la régence

Please note that the Magritte Museum was

designed to comply with environmental
standards and only uses green energy.

The Domain of Arnheim, 1962

© Charly Herscovici, with his kind permission
c/o SABAM-ADAGP, 2008
 Tourist information

The Blank Page, 1967

© Charly Herscovici, with his kind
permission – c/o SABAM-ADAGP, 2008

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The Unexpected Answer (La Réponse imprévue), 1933

© Charly Herscovici, with his kind permission
c/o SABAM-ADAGP, 2008
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