Musee des Beaux-Arts d'Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium

5Lucy M 5:00 PM Feb 8, 2020

Museum closed for renovation.
The museum is closed. CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS AND EXPANSION The Museum of Ixelles will benefit from renovations and expansion between March 5th 2018 and 2021.

4Trainbleu 5:00 PM Dec 30, 2015

Small but interesting museum in Brussels
It’s always a pleasure to visit the municipal museum of Ixelles (‘Musée communal des beaux-arts d'Ixelles’), a rather small museum outside of the centre and away from the trodden path. Unfortunately quite some Tripavisor reviews of this museum erroneously comment on the huge Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium on Rue de la Régence in the city centre. So don’t expect to spend a day here roaming through an overwhelming collection of art or to find a large bookstore and shop or even a beautiful café. Ixelles is an intimate kind of place that will only take a couple of hours to visit. The permanent collection includes European painting from Flemish fourteenth century pieces to the present, Belle Epoque posters and lithographs by Toulouse-Lautrec. There are often interesting temporary exhibitions, which we try not to miss. We recently visited the special exhibition ‘Traits d’union’ presenting the work of two interwar groups of Belgian artists, the famous Laethem-Saint-Martin group from the north of the country and the lesser known Nervia group from the south. As we went on a Sunday we were able to listen to free guides (in French) pointing out the similarities and differences between artists from the first group, such as Anto Carte and Léon Navez and Gustave Van de Woestyne and Valerius de Saedeleer. A visit to the museum can easily be combined with a walk around the lovely ponds (étangs d’Ixelles) near Place Flagey or a stroll through the week-end market on Place Flagey, which closes at 1 p.m. Here you can find all kind of goods from clothing and bed linen to fresh fruit and vegetables, pasta, cheese, bakery products and lots of take-away food like roasted chicken and Asian food. The market attracts food trucks and even an oyster bar on Sunday. Architecture lovers should not forget to have a look at the in modernist corner building, nicknamed ‘le paquebot’ (the steamboat). It was built in the thirties by architect Joseph Diongre to house the National Institute for Radio Broadcasting (NIR). Don’t go to the museum by car because it is difficult to find a parking space, especially on market days. The museum is only a short walk from Place Flagey which can for instance be reached by bus 71 (direction Delta) from the Stop ‘Royal’ on rue Royale Royal or bus 60 from Schuman (direction Uccle Calevoet). Then walk up rue Malibran. Or take bus 95 form Grand Place (direction Fauconnerie) and get off at Blyckaerts.