Museum of Fine Arts Ghent (MSK)
Belgium's oldest fine-art museum, with six centuries of painting from Bosch to Magritte.
The Museum of Fine Arts, known by its Dutch initials MSK, traces its origins to 1798 and is generally described as the oldest museum in Belgium. Its collection spans the Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century and includes Flemish Primitives, Netherlandish and Baroque painting, French and Belgian nineteenth-century work, and the symbolist and modernist artists associated with Ghent and Sint-Martens-Latem. Sculpture, drawings, prints and tapestries complete the holdings, which are shown in a rotating arrangement alongside temporary exhibitions.
The neoclassical building in the Citadelpark was designed by the city architect Charles Van Rysselberghe and opened in 1902, with a temple-front portico and top-lit galleries arranged around two courtyards. A major renovation completed in 2007 restored the skylights and added visitor facilities. Since 2012 the museum has also housed the conservation studio of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, where the restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck can be watched from behind glass.
Highlights
- Hieronymus Bosch's Saint Jerome at Prayer and Christ Carrying the Cross
- Glazed studio where the Ghent Altarpiece is being restored
- Strong holdings of Belgian symbolism, James Ensor and René Magritte
- Neoclassical 1902 building by Charles Van Rysselberghe in the Citadelpark
