Something to Declare

Last Day in Brussels: The Fine Arts and Magritte Museums

October 29, 2025

We fly back to New York tomorrow, October 30. For our last day in Brussels, we wanted to check out the museum dedicated to Belgium’s own René Magritte.

We were surprised that the Musée Magritte is actually a part of the complex of six museums (!) comprising the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, spread out over several buildings in the Royal Quarter.

The aggregate museum was founded by Napoleon in 1801. It covers art works from the early 15th century to the present. Before visiting the Magritte, we toured the Fine Arts Museum, where we saw a display of very modern stuff, like an exhibit of works by Bonolo Kavula (born 1992), that involve a combination of weaving, engraving and sculpture. She uses Shweshwe (try to pronounce that!), a South African fabric, from which small circular cut-outs are made and superimposed on textile structures:

The Old Masters section was a panoply of paintings and sculpture from the 14th through the 17th centuries, most of which were highly religious in content. A couple of sculptures that caught our eye included one of sea gods (below, right) and one titled “Daughters of Satan” (below, left):

Knowing me, you’re not surprised that I was drawn to a still-life of a seafood larder:

Then to the Magritte.

René François Ghislain Magritte (1898-1967) was a Belgian painter and leader of the Surrealist Movement.  His work is known for its dreamlike imagery, unexpected contexts, and use of everyday objects (bowler hats, clouds, pipes, and green apples, e.g.). His work has been described as exploring “the gaps between what we see and what we know, and questions the nature of reality and how reality is represented.” In his own words:

“Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see, but it is impossible. Humans hide their secrets too well…. If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream.”

(Um……..whatever that means.). As you might expect, a great deal of Magritte’s work borders on the bizarre, with (what appeared to us to be) incongruous titles (below, clockwise from the left): “Natural Encounters,” “Scheherezade,” and “The Fine Idea.”

There were also “The Return,” “Treasure Island,” and a piece for which I can’t recall the title:

Some were less outré (if you don’t consider the woman with two heads):

You get the picture (groan!). My favorite was entitled “L’Empire des Lumières” (Empire of Light):

That about wrapped it up. For the last time, we walked past the public artwork at our local Métro station: We’d imagined that it represented a dirigible, but then learned that it represents a cacao bean (silver-coated, no less). This, being Belgium, what else would you expect?

After all, it was located near a Godiva chocolate factory outlet.

Then home for drinkies with our charming VRBO hosts, Jolanda and Simon:

Thanks for your comments and feedback on my blog, it keeps me going. The next adventure is in May of 2026: JAPAN! Stay tuned.