Finding a hidden gem museum in Belgium

I changed trains recently at Tournai, a town in Belgium, and so decided to spend some time looking around. I confess I had never heard of Tournai before, even if technically it is the largest municipality in Wallonia.

During a short visit like this, I always aim to visit a local museum - so I went to the Musée des Beaux Arts.

The museum’s building is from 1928, an almost-hexagonal Art Deco building built by the famed Art Nouveau architect Victor Horta. However, its origins lie even earlier, in the early 1900s when Henri van Cutsem, a local art collector, offered his collection to the city of Tournai.

The museum was spread across eight rooms, arranged around a central atrium, dotted with sculptures. The first room featured many portraits of unknown working people, respectfully paying tribute to their strength and pride. I hope that curation was intentional. Other rooms featured themes such as portraits and light in various parts of the world.

One room displayed the museum’s ”big name artists" like Claude Monet, Edouard Manet and Georges Seurat.

I was struck by their giving away postcards and small, printed ‘curations’ by artists. You could also read some booklets about the ‘big name’ artists, which were also for sale in the small shop. I had never seen museums use these small, simple, printed formats before and was impressed by their inventiveness.

Sometimes a bite-sized museum is best - a short visit, a satisfying introduction to a collection, a way of ‘tasting’ a little of a lot of art rather than a full immersion in a huge collection or museum. Visiting Musée des Beaux Arts de Tournai was a reminder that smaller museums, often unknown internationally, offer gems and special experiences - and are always worth checking out.

Thank you for reading + until next time,