About the museum
The story of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA)
The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, known as KMSKA, opened in its Neo-Renaissance palace in 1890. It reopened in 2022 after an eleven-year renovation that added bright white galleries inside the old building.
Its collection runs from the Flemish Primitives to Rubens and his circle and on to James Ensor and Rik Wouters.
The collection
KMSKA holds about 8,400 works from the fourteenth to the twentieth century. Its Flemish Primitives include Jean Fouquet's Madonna Surrounded by Seraphim and Cherubim, Jan van Eyck's Saint Barbara and Rogier van der Weyden's Seven Sacraments.
Rubens and his circle, Jordaens and Van Dyck fill the great top-lit halls, and the museum owns the largest collection of James Ensor in the world, along with Rik Wouters and Belgian Surrealism.
At ArtLogia you can order 99 of its paintings as hand-painted reproductions, by 62 artists led by Quinten Metsys, Gustave Van de Woestijne and James Ensor.
- paintings to order
- 99
- artists
- 62
- art movements
- 13
- years covered
- 1333–1928
The building
The Neo-Renaissance palace by Jacob Winders and Frans van Dijk opened in 1890. KAAN Architecten's renovation, completed in 2022, hid a bright white museum within the old building, linked by long staircases.
Masterpieces to see
Planning a visit
Rubens's house and studio, the Rubenshuis, is also in Antwerp and makes a good second visit.
