The Magnificent Seven: Van Buuren

In the shadow of the city’s great, well-known temples to art, Brussels also has a number of hidden gems with interesting and at the least surprising collections. Here is number seven of our Magnificent Seven: Museum en Tuinen Van Buuren/Musée et Jardins Van Buuren.

There is nowhere in Brussels in which you will find the work of the Ghent painter Gustave Van de Woestyne so beautifully and prominently displayed as in the Van Buurens’ art-deco house. The original man of the house, the banker and amateur painter David van Buuren, was a lifelong friend of the artist. With the result that some of Van de Woestyne’s most fascinating works are now to be found in Ukkel/Uccle. David and Alice van Buuren were a well-to-do Amsterdam couple that settled in Brussels in 1928 and had an art deco-style house built here. After they died it was opened to the public. What a gift! You can feast your eyes on a tasteful interior, enjoy an impressive collection of paintings (which sadly was recently preyed upon by thieves), and get a breath of fresh air in the luxuriant garden, a project that was particularly dear to Alice’s heart. René Pechère, the Brussels landscape architect par excellence, created two curiosities for the Van Buurens, the Labyrinth and, for romantic souls, the Garden of the Heart.


Museum en Tuinen Van Buuren/Musée et Jardins Van Buuren • avenue Léo Erreralaan 41, Ukkel/Uccle, 02-343.48.51, www.museumvanbuuren.com, 7/7, 14 > 17.30