Eugeen Van Mieghem Museum

Painter Eugeen Van Mieghem watched the world pass by from his mother's inn. The Café Veuve Van Mieghem was located at Montevideostraat number 6. From here, the young Van Mieghem saw and painted the flow of emigrants, but also the dock workers, the skippers, sailors, builders, sackers, and timber cruisers. Eugeen Van Mieghem immortalized a group of Jewish migrants in the pastel drawing "Emigrants in Montevideostraat," recognizable by their clothing. Some packed families seem to be waiting despairingly against the walls of the Red Star Line shipping company. In 1899, Tsar Nicholas II came to power in Russia. Anti-Jewish measures and growing anti-Semitism drove Jews to flee en masse. After a long train journey, they often arrived exhausted at the port of Antwerp. For decades, Antwerp had played a central role in sea traffic to the United States.

Pascal Brackman