The René Magritte Museum is located in the house where the famous, surrealistic artist lived and worked for twenty-four years. After three years in Paris, René and Georgette Magritte returned to Brussels in July 1930 and rented an apartment 135 Esseghem street in Jette (a suburb of Brussels). Magritte occupied the groundfloor and the garden. In 1932 he built at the back of this garden the Studio Dongo, where he created publicity projects. few years later, he has the kitchen transformed and added a bathroom to it. It was in the dining room-studio that he painted most of the time and where he realized nearly half of his paintings and gouaches. It was in this modest room that Magritte's most creative period took place, which lead to many masterworks.
Several elements of the house are integrated in the painter's works. For instance: the sash window, the fireplace and the glass doors of the sitting room, the staircase and its newel in the hall, the handles and the scutcheons of the doors and lastly the lamppost in front of the house. Seventy per cent of the furniture is original (piano, furniture in the bedroom, etc.), the other thirty per cent is from the time but didn't belong to the Magritte. The 135, Esseghem street was also the headquarters of the Belgian surrealists. The painter's friends met here weekly and organized all kinds of happenings. These meetings resulted into many subversive activities, books, magazines and tracts. It is in this house that Magritte knew his "Renoir" period, his "Vache" period, the order for a big wall painting in Knokke, negotiations regarding exhibitions in museums and contacts with art dealers and mainly with the American gallery owner Iolas. All these activities are illustrated on the first and second floor of the museum by original works, documents, objects, letters and photos. On the third floor, one can have a view of the painter's attic. The house counts nineteen rooms, seventeen of which are open to the public.
This house which Magritte left in 1954, was restored between 1993 and 1999 and became a museum to render a permanent homage to one of the most brilliant artists of all times.
