Museum of Fine Arts - Tournai

The Museum of Fine Arts of Tournai has its origins in the wish of the patron of Brussels origin Henri Van Cutsem to bequeath his very important collection of modern Belgian and French painting to the city of Tournai, on the express condition that a museum would be established there built by one of his friends, the famous Art Nouveau architect Victor Horta.

This stylistic evolution can be explained by the slow evolution of the project developed between 1907 (plans) and 1913 (construction), interrupted by the war and inaugurated in 1928. The central plan building consists of a wide and short core on which five smaller, radiating wings are grafted, in the shape of a turtle or a flying squirrel, depending on the reading direction of the den plan. Turtles are depicted on the handles of the front doors. All that remains today are the handles themselves, shaped like a turtle's leg.

After the theft of the Mona Lisa, Horta designed his museum to address security problems in museums . The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre Museum August 21, 1911, before being found in Italy two years later. According to the construction plan , a security guard can conduct panoramic surveillance of the rooms. By placing himself in the center of the museum, he can observe all the rooms around him

A composition sculpted by Charlier brings together male silhouettes around a triumphant young woman and crowns the whole.
In 1979, one of the three monumental bronze copies of Woman Looking at the Sun (1962) by George Grard was placed on the museum square. In 1997, the George Grard Foundation loaned a version of Spring to the Crown (1946).

The museum's collections offer a panorama of paintings and sculptures ranging from Flemish primitives to contemporary artists.

Willem Vandenameele