Recently, the Flemish Community acquired 'The Virgin of Consolation' by James Ensor. The painting had been on the 'Flemish Masterpieces' list since 2007. You can see the painting until 25 February in the 'Rare & Indispensable' exhibition. After that, it will be given into long-term loan at the MSK in Ghent.
Antwerp was a particularly popular port of emigration among Jews from Central and Eastern Europe. These people constituted a sizeable proportion of the Red Star Line’s passengers. The shipping company recruited its “customers” from deep within Eastern Europe.
Napoleon's visit to Antwerp in 1803 was a high point for the city on the Scheldt. Joséphine de Beauharnais, Napoleon's wife, ordered a painting to immortalise the entry. This is a preliminary sketch for that.
The nine contemplations on the impurity of the human body depicts how finite the human body is. Japanese monks used such series as an aid to their meditation.
As well as an architect, Le Corbusier was also a furniture designer, a painter, a sculptor and an influential theorist. He is sometimes called ‘the architect of the 20th century’. His ideas were showered with praise, but he also received a lot of criticism.
CLOSED - People have desires. They desire love and security. They desire to understand the meaning of life. They also desire wealth, status and power... In the exhibition Dazzling Desire, visitors discovered how mankind has made these desires tangible with striking objects, often consisting of diamonds.
