Museum voor Schone Kunsten

This was one of the best museums I have ever visited in my entire life. The paintings are impressively beautiful. Everything is pretty accessible for tourists as they offer texts in French, Dutch and English. Also, the audio guide is perfect as it's not very tiring and gives you the freedom to circulate at your own pace while listening to the Brussels orchestra perhaps. Not only that, but the explanations are interesting and very important to a better understanding. I highly recommend going with a lot of time, so you can appreciate and analyse every detail of the pieces.

The SMK is definitely worth the visit. I was particularly drawn to the architecture, which was clearly designed to display art. I’ve been in many museums over the years, and this one is housed in a special building. My friend and I visited on a weekend day; it was bustling, but not overcrowded. Lots of families, enjoying the wall art and sculptures along with the wonderful architecture. The Ghent city card/pass will get you in. You can get the card at any participating location. I would advise not activating the card until you are ready to go to multiple tourist locations.

If you can't make it to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels, this is the next best thing. It is deceivingly large! On the left is modern contemporary art 🤮 and the rest is beautiful art from as early as the 1300's.

Very nice art museum in Ghent. It's in the city park, opposite of the other art museum. The permanent exhibition is interesting, as well as regular temporary exhibitions.

We went there on weekend and was not crowded. There is modern paintings in there. Although it is one of oldest museum in Belgium, we could not found so big. 1-1.5 hours will be enough.

Thought it was good. Flemish masters. Couple of Rubens around. Audio guide was good. Cheap for 18-25 € 3.50.

Very good museum with large rooms and many sculptures and paintings. Visitors can also watch the people working at the repair of paintings (no photo) and there is a big area for kids and groups activities. Unfortunately there is no late opening.

Rich collection of early Flemish to 20th century Belgian art in a purpose built building. It might feel a bit tired and in need of a more modern curation, but the art itself is worth your visit as it guides you from the 15th to the 20th century and from Bosch to Ensor. It is quite a large museum therefore you might be privileged to walk most of the grand halls alone and enjoy the art in a blissful silence. The café is pretty basic and needs a modern touch as well.

On a very wet November Saturday,I walked through Ghent's Citadel Park and I spent a memorable day at Ghent's MSK Art Museum.Although it is appreciably smaller than the Old Masters Art Museum in Brussels,there were plenty of paintings and works of Art that captivated me from the time it opened to the time it closed.I have confined this review to its paintings from the 14th Century to the end of the 18th Century.Its collection of Renaissance and Baroque Period Paintings with devotional subject matter is outstanding.Some of my favorite devotional theme paintings were Puccio di Simone's"Coronation of the Virgin"14th Century Italian Trecento,Colin de Coter's"Adoration of Magi",Master of the Family of Saint Anne's"Saint Anne and Family",Jacob Oostansen's""Calvary",Jaime Huguet's"Crucifixion of Saint Peter"(Spanish Renaissance),Marius Van Reymerswaele's"Calling of Saint Matthew"Jacob Jordaens'"Flight From Egypt",Peter Paul Rubens'"Saint Francis receiving Stigmata"(a quintessential Counter Reformation Painting),Gasper de Crayer's"Judgement of King Solomon",and Hendrick Van Vliet's Church Interiors with marvelous lighting effects,among many others.Other favorites were Theodore Rombouts'"Allegory of Senses",Anton Van Dyck's"Jupiter and Antiope",Adriean Van Utrecht's"Fisherman's Stall",Aelbert Vander Schoor's"Smoker",Melchior d'Hondecoeter's"Waterbirds",Jacques Fouquier's"Panorama of Avignon",and Jan Van Goyen's"Landscape With Castle",among numerous others. The next day,I returned to this fine art museum to concentrate on their 19th and 20th Century works of Art. Furthermore,I appeciated the helpfulness of their staff and fine curatorial work.

A part of me wanted to say that this is just another art gallery, but honestly there isn't such a thing as 'just another art gallery', especially when the gallery that we are referring to happens to be in Europe. This particular gallery, while I didn't necessarily stumble across, I didn't realise that it existed until the night of my arrival in Ghent. The reason is that I got it mixed up with the modern art gallery. However, this gallery also contains modern art, but along with that it also have quite a lot of traditional works of art, whether they be impressionist or whether they be of the old masters. Another interesting part of this gallery was that there was a room that was set aside to show us the technique of restoring the older paintings, and included one particular work of art (namely the altarpiece) that was being restored at the moment.

I trekked all the way to this museum, from downtown, a distance of about two kilometers, in the rain....... OK, I am starting to sound like a story my grandparents once told me. But let's just say that I definitely went out of my way to come to the MSK, or Museum voor Schone Kunsten. There was a visiting exhibition by Danh Vo, which dealt with politics and identity. It sounds pretty cool in concept, but the actual visit to see it was underwhelming, because it appears in the press photos exactly as it does in real life. Nothing more to see. Eh. So I moved on to the permanent exhibitions. Lo and behold, there was the display of the Flemish baroque painters: Jacob Jordaens, Anthony van Dyck, and Peter Paul Rubens. Admittedly the art is interesting (although it has its low and boring moments), but I had just seen this same exhibition (or parts of it on loan) at the Hermitage in Amsterdam. Needless to say, I breezed on through the rest of this, stopping only to read up about the paintings that caught my attention. For someone who is an English speaker, thoroughly absorbing the art here would take HOURS, particularly since all the descriptions are only in Dutch. For other languages, each room has its own handout, and there were at least 20 rooms, and likely more. For someone not as familiar with Flemish art, this place is high on the must-see list. But if you're already versed in the classics, it might not be as interesting.