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The Musea Brugge collection comprises over 70,000 items. The vast majority of them are closely related to the rich history of Bruges. The various collections have been assembled by collectors and art lovers or come from civic institutions such as the Academy or Sint-Janshospitaal (St John’s Hospital). Memlingmuseum (Memling Museum), the first museum in Bruges, opened its doors as early as in 1839. The collection includes panel paintings by Flemish Primitives. These can be seen not only in the Groeningemuseum, but also in the Sint-Janshospitaal (St John's hospital, the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ter Potterie (Our Lady of ter Potterie) and the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady). Those places also have several impressive canvas paintings from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Notable subcollections include work by neo-classic artists such as Joseph-Benoît Suvée, Joseph Odevaere, François Joseph Kinsoen and Flemish expressionists, such as Gustave van de Woestijne, Jean Brusselmans and Constant Permeke. Apart from paintings, the collection of visual art also includes plenty of sculpture, graphics, and drawings from the Middle Ages to the present day. Furthermore, there is also a lot of applied art on show in the Gruuthusemuseum, Sint-Janshospitaal, Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ter Potterie, Onze-Lieve Vrouwekerk and the Volkskundemuseum (Museum of Folk Life). This impressive overview of craftwork in Bruges also includes various tapestry collections, Bruges lace, silverware, furniture, and pottery. Finally, Musea Brugge also has a valuable folkloristic collection. For instance the figure of poet Guido Gezelle is elucidated extensively in the Gezellemuseum. |
