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Musée Ancien
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Mutsaardstraat 31
The building on Mutsaardstraat still exists, but does not house the museum collection anymore. Since 1890, the collection has been housed in the newer building of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts at Leopold de Waelplaats 2.
- 25 Nov. 1878 1855
After his arrival in Antwerp, Vincent visited various museums. At the Musée Ancien, which housed classical art, he saw paintings by Dutch and Flemish old masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Jacob Jordaens and Jan van Eyck. Vincent especially loved the painting The Fisher Boy by Frans Hals (c. 1630). He particularly admired it because:
“I see so many types among the people here who remind me of that age.” Read the complete letter
Vincent was a fan of Hals’s work. He admired Hals’s and Rembrandt’s quick painting style and the way they rendered shapes and forms using just a few brushstrokes. For Vincent, it was a pleasure to see paintings that had not been “painstakingly smoothed out”.
Seen here
Frans Hals, Fisher boy, ca. 1630-1632
Oil on canvas, 74 x 61 cm
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Jacob Jordaens, As the elders sing, so pipe the young, 1638
Oil on canvas, 120 x 192 cm
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Jan van Eyck, St. Barbara, 1437
Oil on panel, 34 x 18,5 cm
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Peter Paul Rubens, St Theresa of Avila through Christ's intervention rescuing Bernardinus of Mendoza from Purgatory, ca. 1630
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Useful links
Relevant letters from Vincent
Continue reading
Guido Persoons
Vincent van Gogh te Antwerpen in 1885-1886 : zijn opleiding in de Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten te Antwerpen als bijdrage tot de vorming van zijn kunstenaarschapIn: Periscoop, Vriendenkring van de Koninklijke Academie, 14-1 (1990)Mark Tralbaut
Van Gogh te AntwerpenAntwerpen, 1958Louis van Tilborg en Ella Hendriks
Vincent van Gogh schilderijen, deel 2: Antwerpen en ParijsAmsterdam, 2011Ella Hendriks en Louis van Tilborgh
New views on Van Gogh’s development in Antwerp and Paris: an integrated art historical and technical study of his paintings in the Van Gogh MuseumUniversiteit van Amsterdam, proefschrift, 2006Marije Vellekoop, Sjraar van Heugten
Vincent van Gogh tekeningen, deel 3: Antwerpen en Parijs 1885 – 1888Amsterdam, 2001
