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Document Details : Title: Petits musées d'art Subtitle: 19de-eeuwse kunstenaarsherbergen in België Author(s): BECUWE, Marie Journal: Tijdschrift voor Interieurgeschiedenis en Design Volume: 43 Date: 2021 Pages: 45-63 DOI: 10.2143/GBI.43.0.3289232 Abstract : During the long 19th century some country inns and other rural establishments played a remarkable role in artistic life in Belgium. In the wake of the School of Barbizon, more and more Belgian landscape painters chose to move to the countryside from the 1840s on to paint there en plein air. As in other Western European countries, some rural inns became important artistic meeting places or ‘artists’ inns’ for realist painters and later for impressionist artists. In some cases, the interiors of these inns reflected their importance as artistic breeding grounds. With the innkeepers’ consent, artists transformed the soberly furnished country inns to their very own petits musées d’art. The owners not only provided artists with studio space, but also allowed them to decorate the walls, ceilings, doors, windows and furniture. Sketches and paintings adorned the walls, left by the artists as gifts or as means of payment. In this way some innkeepers built up an art collection. Moreover, these artistic interiors also proved to be an important asset in the emerging rural tourism. The increasing flow of tourists, especially along the coast, gave rise to numerous modest art exhibitions outside the urban circuit. In the early 20th century various places to eat and drink in the green belt around Brussels also transformed into galeries. Unlike in urban exhibition spaces, direct contact between works of art and nature depicted therein offered an authentic experience. Yet notwithstanding their cultural-historical significance, 19th-century artists’ inns and other artistic meeting places in the Belgian countryside have often been ignored by the heritage preservation and the cultural touristic sectors in past decades. |
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