Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert papers (PGF/II)

Collection

Holding institution (official language):: Archives des Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique

Creator/accumulator:: Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique; Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België

Scope and content:: This fonds contains correspondence and other documents related to the work, speeches, publications and classes given by Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert, chief curator of the MRBAB. We notably find a number of documents concerning Jewish artists in Belgium and their art: no. 66, no. 179 and no. 201, in which, respectively, the sculptor Ferdinand Schirren, Lucien Franck and the artists Lucien Franck and Philippe Wolfers are mentioned.

Archival history:: This (sub)fonds contains archival material donated to the MRBAB by Jacques Fierens, grandson of Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique / Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium) was created by virtue of the consular decree of 14 Fructidor year IX, better known as the Chaptal decree. The museum opened to the public two years later and Guillaume Bosschaert was its first curator. The museum, owned by the city of Brussels since 1811, was ceded to the newly created Belgian state according to the agreement of 31 December 1842. In 1907 the first ‘society of friends’ was created: les Amis des Musées royaux de l’État à Bruxelles, counting among its members many dignitaries and personalities of the Jewish financial and industrial elite, including baron Léon Cassel, Léon Lambert, Franz Philippson and Jules Philippson. In 1919, after the First World War, the Museum was directed by chief curator Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert. Today, the collections of the MRBAB include over 20000 works of art. Today, the MRBAB comprises the Old Masters Museum, the Modern Museum, the Wiertz Museum, Meunier Museum, Magritte Museum and the Fin-de-Siècle Museum. (http://www.fine-arts-museum.be; M. van Kalck (ed.), Les Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Deux siècles d’histoire, Bruxelles, éd. Dexia Banque et Racine, 2003.)

Access points: persons/families:: Fierens-Gevaert, Hippolyte; Franck, Lucien; Schirren, Ferdinand; Wolfers, Philippe

Access, restrictions:: Consultation is possible by appointment with the archivist of the MRBAB.

Finding aids:: There is a printed inventory available at the Archives department of the MRBAB.