Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels

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 Rue du Midi/Zuidstraat, in what was the former Bogards' convent, which had meanwhile served as an orphanage. The architect Victor Jamaer 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

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