The Musée des Beaux-Arts in

Tournai Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...

, Belgium, is an art museum. At the beginning of the 20th century,

Henri Van Cutsem Henri-Émile Van Cutsem (1839–1904) was a Belgian patron of the arts, and also himself a painter Biography Van Cutsem was born in Brussels into a family of hoteliers who had become wealthy from their business. He studied law at Liège. ...

, a Belgian art collector, offered his collection of art to the city of Tournai in 1905. The collection contained important works of important 19th century

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

painters like Manet, Monet, Seurat and others. The Belgian

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

architect Victor Horta started drafting a new building that would contain the Van Cutsem donation and other holdings already owned by the city of Tournai but the First World War intervened and construction was delayed. Horta abandoned his first designs made in a typical Art Nouveau style, shifting to the popular art deco style. The building, which opened in 1928, is a graceful curved version of usually strict linearity of art deco, in this, it is similar to Horta's

Brussels Central Station Brussels Central Station (french: Gare de Bruxelles-Central, nl, Station Brussel-Centraal), officially Brussels-Central (french: Bruxelles-Central, link=no, nl, Brussel-Centraal, link=no), is a railway and metro station in central Brussels, B ...

External links

Museum information
Art museums and galleries established in 1928 Art museums and galleries in Belgium Museums in Hainaut (province) Victor Horta buildings Buildings and structures completed in 1928 1928 establishments in Belgium Art Nouveau architecture in Belgium Art Nouveau museum buildings Tournai {{Belgium-museum-stub

See also

External links