The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels ( , ArBA-EsA; ) is an art school in Brussels, Belgium, founded in 1711. Starting from modest beginnings in a single room in Brussels' Town Hall, it has since 1876 been operating from a former convent and orphanage in the /, which was converted by the architect . The school has played an important role in training leading local artists.

History

Origins

Historically, artistic training in Brussels was organised in traditional workshops, where masters would teach their skills to apprentices. The masters needed to be registered with their local guild to be able to practice their craft. On 30 September 1711, the magistrate of the City of Brussels granted the guilds of painters, sculptors, weavers, as well as other amateurs, the use of a room in the Town Hall to teach drawing classes to their pupils. On 16 October of the same year, some sort of school was established at these premises to organise the classes. This school would concentrate mainly on teaching drawing.

In 1737, the school adopted its first rules. The city assumed some costs, including those for the models. A few decades later, however, disagreement broke out. The classes moved to the 't Gulden Hoofd inn and were even suspended for a while. The Bruges painter Bernard Verschoot took over the school's leadership and tried to put it back on the rails with a heavy hand. The Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, put the school under his high protection in 1762. His attention went mainly to the Department of Architecture. The school was re-established in 1768 as the Académie de Peinture, Sculpture et Architecture ("Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture"), with funds raised through a public subscription. Inspiration was found in the French model. A year later, the school returned to the Town Hall. In 1795, the Academy was closed following the conquest of Brussels by French revolutionary troops.

Resurgence under François-Joseph Navez In 1829, the Academy moved into the Granvelle Palace (since demolished). The following year, François-Joseph Navez became director. He organised the school and expanded it. In 1832, the Academy relocated to the basement of the left wing of the Palace of Industry. From 1835 to 1836, Navez's plans were implemented. In 1836, the Academy was awarded the privilege of using the adjective "Royal" as part of its name. Panel painting was declared to another important department; it was based on the first golden age of Dutch painting. However, there were tensions at the Academy for some time regarding the yet propagated neoclassical style. In addition to painting and sculpture, architectural education became increasingly important, though it never achieved the status of a pioneering teaching and training facility.

In 1876, the Academy moved to the school buildings on the /, in what was the former Bogards' convent, which had meanwhile served as an orphanage. The architect managed to incorporate the entire school within the limited space of the existing ensemble. On that occasion, the façade was redesigned in the neoclassical style. The Academy remains there to this day. From 5 January 1889, women were also allowed to participate in a class for advanced students. At the end of the 19th century, the modern LUCA Campus Sint-Lukas Brussels was founded, a strong competition. Under the direction of Charles van der Stappen, the Academy gained even greater prestige. The training offer at that time even included literature and photography.

In the European art scene around the turn of the 20th century, Brussels drew forth as a training centre in the shadow of Paris. Since 1889, Brussels had been the uncrowned capital of Art Nouveau, especially in architecture, which had its triumphal procession through Prof. Victor Horta. The Academy managed the step to another centre of the avant-garde in panel painting. The Academy and its students went on to influence the development of Realism, Symbolism, Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and the newly incipient Expressionism. These were all precursors of modern art.

In 1912, Horta had made changes to the organisation of the school. A system of studios was created, as it was recommended by Paul Bonduelle and Émile Lambot. In 1936, the Royal Order was made to the formation of the separate Department of Architecture.

Changes in organisation and teaching after 1945 In 1949, a small Department of Planning and Urban Development was established. Architectural studies got the rank of university education. In 1972, the Department of Artistic Humanities was established. In 1977, the Department of Architecture finally acquired its autonomy. Also in 1977, the Institut supérieur d'architecture Victor Horta, named after the Art Nouveau architect and former director, was founded. In 1980, higher second-degree education and new courses were introduced. In 2009, the Faculty of Architecture of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) was founded. This followed the merger of two architectural schools: the Institut supérieur d'architecture Victor Horta (ISAVH) and the Institut supérieur d'architecture de la Communauté française La Cambre (ISACF).

Nowadays, ARBA is one of the sixteen art schools of the French Community of Belgium. Programmes are offered for Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in the fields of design, art and media, as well as doctoral studies. The Academy has been an ESA (Ecole Supérieure des Arts - Art College) with a university orientation. In addition, it is part of the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB), founded in 2001. The school is sometimes confused with the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) and the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium, both separate institutions, as well as the French Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, part of the Institut de France.

Faculty and alumni Includes some of the most famous names in Belgian painting, sculpture, and architecture: James Ensor (1860–1949), painter and printmaker Paul Delvaux (1897–1994), surrealist painter René Magritte (1898–1967), surrealist painter Kali (1918–1998), Polish-American painter Peyo (1928–1992), cartoonist, creator of The Smurfs Oriane Lassus (b. 1987), French author, cartoonist and illustrator

Notable directors and professors Barnabé Guimard (1731–1805), French architect Tilman-François Suys (1783–1861), architect François-Joseph Navez (1787–1869), neoclassical painter Louis Gallait (1810–1887), painter Eugène Simonis (1810–1893), sculptor Jean-François Portaels (1818–1895), painter Charles van der Stappen (1843–1910), sculptor Jef Lambeaux (1852–1908), sculptor Jacques de Lalaing (1858–1917), Belgian-British sculptor and painter Victor Horta (1861–1947), architect Paul Saintenoy (1862–1952), architect, teacher, architectural historian, and writer Henri van Dievoet (1869–1931), architect Alfred Bastien (1873–1955), artist, academic, and soldier Léon Devos (1897–1974), painter RDK Netherlands Institute for Art HistoryAcadémie royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles

Gallery of works by notable teachers and directors

Notable students Joseph-Pierre Braemt (1796–1864), medalist François Musin (1820–1888), painter Franz Meerts (1836–1896), painter Josse Impens (1840–1905), painter Gustave Léonard de Jonghe (1844–1848), painter Emile Wauters (1846–1933), painter Isidore Verheyden (1846–1905), painter Alfred Verhaeren (1849–1924), painter Amédée Lynen (1852–1938), painter and illustrator Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), Dutch painter Jan Hillebrand Wijsmuller (1855–1925), Dutch painter Paul Du Bois (1859–1938), French sculptor James Ensor (1860–1949), painter Victor Rousseau (1865–1954), sculptor Jef Leempoels (1867–1935), painter Gabriel Van Dievoet (1875–1934), painter Mercédès Legrand (1893–1945), Spanish-born Belgian painter and sculptor Victor Servranckx (1897–1965), painter Paul Delvaux (1897–1994), painter René Magritte (1898–1967), painter Éliane de Meuse (1899–1993), painter Claudia Cobizev (1905-1995), Moldovan sculptor Zhang Chongren, better known as Tschang Tschong-jen (1907–1998), Chinese sculptor and painter Ben-Ami Shulman, (1907–1986), Israeli architect Claude Strebelle (1917–2010), architect and builder RDK Netherlands Institute for Art HistoryAcadémie royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles

Gallery of works by notable students

Footnotes

References

Exhibitions Academie Royale des Beaux-arts et Ecole des Arts decoratifs de Bruxelles. Exposition centennale 1800–1900 1987: Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, 275 ans d'enseignement, from 07.05 - 28.06.1987 2007: Art, anatomie trois siècles d'évolution des représentations du corps, Académie royale des Beaux-arts de Bruxelles, 20.04. - 16.05.2007

Bibliography Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles. 275 ans d'enseignement = 275 jaar onderwijs aan de Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Brussel., Crédit Communal, Brussels, 1987, Academie Royale des Beaux-arts et École des Arts décoratifs de Bruxelles. Exposition centennale 1800–1900 A. W. Hammacher: Amsterdamsche Impressionisten en hun Kring. J.M. Meulenhoff, Amsterdam, 1946 Wiepke Loos, Carel van Tuyll van Serooskerken: Waarde Hoer Allebé – Leven en werk van August Allebé (1838–1927). Waanders, Zwolle, 1988, Sheila D. Muller: Dutch Art – An Encyclopedia. Routledge, 2013, Jean Bouret: L'École de Barbizon et le paysage française au XIXe siècle. Neuchâtel, 1972 Georges Pillement: Les Pré-Impressionistes. Zug, 1972, Nathalia Brodskaya: Impressionismus. Parkstone Books, New York, 2007, Norma Broude: Impressionismus. an international movement, 1860–1920 ("World impressionism"). Dumont, Cologne, 2007, Jean-Paul Crespelle: Les Fauves, Origines et Evolution, Office du Livre, Fribourg, und Edition Georg Popp, Würzburg, 1981, Jean Leymarie: Fauvismus, Editions d'Art, Albert Skira Verlag, Geneva, 1959 Kristian Sotriffer: Expressionismus und Fauvismus. Verlag Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna, 1971 Jean-Luc Rispail: Les surréalistes. Une génération entre le rêve et l'action (= Découvertes Gallimard. 109). Gallimard, Paris, 2005, David Britt: Modern Art - Impressionism to Post-Modernism. Thames & Hudson, London, 2007, Sandro Bocola: Die Kunst der Moderne. Zur Struktur und Dynamik ihrer Entwicklung. Von Goya bis Beuys. Prestel, Munich/New York, 1994, . (Neuauflage im Psychosozial-Verlag, Gießen, Lahn 2013, ) Sam Phillips: Moderne Kunst verstehen - Vom Impressionismus ins 21. Jahrhundert. A. Seemann Henschel, Leipzig, 2013, Pierre Daix, Joan Rosselet: Picasso - The Cubist Years 1907–1916., Thames & Hudson, London, 1979, Michael White: De Stijl and Dutch Modernism (= Critical Perspectives in Art History). Manchester University Press, Thomas, Karin: Blickpunkt der Moderne: Eine Geschichte von der Romantik bis heute. Verlag M. DuMont, Cologne, 2010,

Sources ARBA online history (in French) Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, (RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History), Netherlands (in Dutch and English) Royale Museums of fine Arts of Belgium - Brussels Museums

External links

Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts