Wiertz Museum — Attraction in Ixelles - Elsene

Excellent little ( well, little )museum dedicated to the Belgian romantic painter Antoine Wiertz. Receiving his training at the Antwerp Academy , he was passionate about Rubens , wishing to reach his level of artistic prowess and even to surpass it. So it follows that there is drama here and grandeur : Wiertz's Rebellion of Hell is 11 metres high !!! A word of warning though , several of his paintings are not for the faint of heart. Death by decapitation, gunshot and even cannibalism are present. Some claim that Bartholdi was inspired by Wiertz's Triumph of Light when he designed the Statue of Liberty. A final interesting feat that this was also the house were Hendrik Conscience spent his final years. Serving as curator for the Wiertz museum, he is better known for his epic novel De Leeuw van Vlaanderen ( The Lion of Flanders). As such this house was home to two of the greatest romantic artists...

Antoine Wiertz was an artist in the 19th century that was inspired by Ruben and Michelangelo. He is well known of making large canvasses of semi naked angels showing some sort of struggle. Some of his artwork look almost like comic caricatures like his painting of the hunchback of Notre Dam.

He developed a new technique combining the smoothness of oil painting with the speed of execution and the dullness of painting in fresco. This technique of mat painting entailed the use of a mixture of colours, turpentine and petrol on Holland. They are best seen in his larger works.

Wiertz died in his studio. His remains were embalmed in accordance with Ancient Egyptian burial rites and buried in a vault in the municipal cemetery. His collection was given to the Belgian state.

Highly recommended for a visit. A visit to the...

The phrase "hidden treasure" is overused, but in this case is entirely justified. Don't come expecting Old Masters: the museum only has works by a single artist, but Antoine Wiertz painted such a huge variety of paintings, all of which are incredibly strange, it feels like you're seeing painting by dozens of different people. Because it's not widely advertised, you often have the place to yourself despite it being in such a prime location. As an added bonus, it's free, unlike most Belgian museums which seem to make it a point of pride to see how much they can gouge visitors for. If you only have time to visit one Brussels museum, it should...