Despite its size, Belgium has a long and distinguished artistic tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages, considerably pre-dating the foundation of the current state in 1830. Art from the areas making up modern Belgium is called in English Netherlandish up to the separation with the Netherlands from 1570 on, and Flemish until the 18th century.
During the so-called Northern Renaissance, Belgium experienced an artistic boom, spawning the immensely popular Baroque Flemish school of painting. The cities of Bruges and Antwerp, some of the richest in the region, became artistic centres during the period.
The artist Peter Paul Rubens painted in Belgium between 1609-1621, working for many royal patrons from his studio in Antwerp. Rubens' house in Antwerp, the Rubenshuis, is now a museum.
Anthony van Dyck, celebrated for his painting of British court, including Charles I, was born in Antwerp.
Flemish genre painting is strongly tied to the traditions of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and was a style that continued directly into the 17th century through copies and new compositions made by his sons Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder. Many of these are kermis paintings and scenes of peasants partaking other outdoor enjoyments viewed from an elevated viewpoint.
In the 18th century painting in the Southern Low Countries became increasingly focused on France. Many Flemish and Walloon painters studied in Paris and adopted the new neoclassical style en vogue in the last decades of the 18th century.
The Bruges painter Joseph-Benoît Suvée made a career in the French capital where he was a rival of Jacques-Louis David.
The latter settled in Brussels after the fall of Napoleon. Their major followers in Belgium (then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands) where Joseph Denis Odevaere and François-Joseph Navez.
Impressionism and neo-impressionism
Originating in France, Impressionism was also adopted by Belgian artists. Emile Claus is the most well known representative of 'Luminism', an art movement inspired by Impressionist plein-air painting. The young avant-garde painter James Ensor experimented briefly with Impressionism but soon found his very own style. Painters of his generation were more inspired by french Pointillism, most notably by Seurat and Signac. The young Henry Van de Velde made a few works in a pure pointillist style but was also deeply influenced by Vincent van Gogh. Anna Boch, Eugène Boch (a close friend of Vincent van Gogh), Georges Lemmen and Théo van Rysselberghe were all influential Belgian neo-impressionist painters.
Belgian Surrealism
Surrealism developed in Belgium during the inter-war period. The best known Belgian surrealist, René Magritte, exhibited in 1927 for the first time.
Jacques du Broeucq was a sculptor of the 16th century, known for his religious scenes and as the teacher of the famous Italian late-renaissance sculptor Giambologna, who was himself born in Flanders.
Constantin Meunier was an influential Belgian sculptor of the late 19th-early 20th century, known for his figures, which unusually, often depict industrial workers. Meunier's work was very popular around Europe, coinciding with the rise of the political Labour movement in the late 19th century.
George Grard (1901 — 1984) was a Walloon sculptor, known above all for his representations of the female, in the manner of Pierre Renoir and Aristide Maillol, modelled in clay or plaster, and cast in bronze. Working in Liège too, Jean Del Cour, the sculptor of the Virgin in Vinâve d'Isle, Léon Mignon the sculptor of Li Tore, and Louis Jéhotte known for his statue of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne.
Architecture
An Art Nouveau doorway in Ixelles, designed by Ernest Delune and built in 1902.
The Art Nouveau style enjoyed considerable popularity in Belgium until after the First World War. Numerous houses around Belgium in the Art Nouveau style designed by Victor Horta survive (though not his masterpiece, the Maison du Peuple) which are classified as by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Comic art (known as bande dessinée or the 9th Art) first became popular in Belgium in the 1920s, but achieved huge popularity internationally after the Second World War. It is considered an essential part of Belgian visual culture, as well as one of the country's main artistic influences internationally.[3] The best known series, The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé, first appeared in 1929, and have been translated into fifty languages, selling a total of 200 million copies.[4] Belgian artists were heavily involved in the pioneering of the Ligne Claire and other artistic styles in comic strips.
The most significant art collection in the country is the national collection at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, however, there are more than a dozen other significant art collections around the country.
There are also numerous smaller museums, often supported by the state, focused on individual artists, with museums devoted Magritte, Wiertz and Meunier amongst many others.
Belgium also has numerous galleries devoted to collections of non-indigenous art, including Oriental,[5] Classical[6] and Congolese[7] painting, sculpture and other visual art.
