Ansembourg Museum

Ansembourg Museum
	Musée d'Ansembourg
Coordinates	50°38′49″N 5°34′56″E / 50.64698°N 5.58216°ECoordinates: 50°38′49″N 5°34′56″E / 50.64698°N 5.58216°E
Website	lesmuseesdeliege.be/ansembourg/

The Ansembourg Museum (Musée d'Ansembourg) is a museum in the Belgian city of Liège. It is housed in the hôtel d'Ansembourg on Féronstrée in the historic heart of the city.

History

Its collections originated as part of those of the Institut archéologique liégeois (IAL), founded on 4 April 1850. Its archaeological and decorative arts collections were displayed in the Prince-Bishops' Palace, then in the university library, then in l'Émulation (the headquarters of the Société libre d'émulation, a literary, artistic and scientific society) and finally in a gallery solely devoted to the IAL's collections in one of the wings of the Palace on 12 October 1874.

Fisen, Portrait of the artist and his family, 1722

In 1901 the city council and the IAL acquired the Curtius Palace to house the city's archaeological and decorative arts collections - the archaeology and some of the decorative arts objects are still on display there as the Curtius Museum. On 12 February 1903 the city council bought the hôtel d'Ansembourg, which it restored and opened on 10 July 1905 as a museum of 18th century decorative arts, especially furniture.

Its collection is one of the most important collections of Liège-Aix Style furniture, a regional variant of Baroque furniture-art. It displays them as reconstructions of rooms of different eras. The museum also owns an important collection of 17th-19th century paintings, sculptures and drawings by Gérard de Lairesse, Nicolaas Verkolje, Jean-Baptiste Coclers, Théodore-Edmond Plumier (Portrait of Prince William of Hesse, 1720), Englebert Fisen (including a self portrait), Louis-Michel van Loo, Léonard Defrance (Women Drinking Coffee, 1763), Jean Delcour (Madonna and Child) and Louis-Félix Rhénasteine.

Bibliography

(in French) Joseph Philippe, « Peinture décorative et polychromie liégeoises du xviiie siècle. Découvertes récentes et traitement au Musée d'Ansembourg », La vie liégeoise, no 11, novembre 1978, p. 3-9

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