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In June 2024, the two-year project Apprentice-Master II was launched. With the support of the Flemish Government and in collaboration with strong national and international partners, Musea Brugge continues exploring the history of the Bruges Academy during the long 19th century. We are conducting research into the international journeys of artists who studied at the academy and aim to engage everyone in this process—including you!
Apprentice-Master II builds on the registration project Apprentice-Master (2022-2023). Through this project, Musea Brugge made significant progress in registering and digitally making available the sub-collection of the Bruges Academy. As a result, 874 figure drawings by Academy students from the period 1757-1892 are now accessible to everyone via the online collection page. Apprentice-Master II builds on these achievements.
For many artists, the Bruges Academy proved to be a springboard for international training or careers. Students of great masters traveled to places like Paris and Rome—the artistic hotspots of the time—to perfect their craft. These artists, in turn, became masters who inspired their own students to venture abroad.
The artistic path of Joseph-Benoît Suvée (1743-1807) is a prime example of this phenomenon. This star of the Bruges neoclassical school made his career in Paris and Rome, becoming a shining example for his ambitious fellow citizens. Former students of the Academy gathered around him. For instance, Joseph Denis Odevaere (1775-1830) studied in Suvée’s Parisian studio and later spent time at the Académie de France à Rome, where Suvée was director.
With Apprentice-Master II, we aim to achieve significant milestones between 2024 and 2026.
First, we will conduct thorough research on the Bruges Academy and its students, focusing on the network formation of Bruges artists and on the comparison of academic teaching practices from an international perspective.
Second, we will organize public activities for various target groups to share the knowledge gained about the teaching practices of the Bruges Academy. These may include lectures or drawing lessons at our museum locations.
As part of Apprentice-Master II, we are organizing the two-day conference '(Re)searching connections' on 30 September and 1 October 2025 at the Academia Belgica in Rome. This conference provides a platform for researchers to share ideas and insights about the international networks of artists active between 1750 and 1914. Cities like Paris and Rome attracted not only Bruges citizens: artists from all over the world established valuable connections abroad. During the conference, we will examine this phenomenon and exchange thoughts with other experts.
Which digital tool is best suited to mapping artists' networks for ‘Apprentice-Master II'? Not an easy question. That's why we turned to the fresh perspective of students from the Information Management graduate programme at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences. Today, there are countless tools for structuring and visualising large amounts of research data, making the right choice crucial. There are many criteria to consider: user-friendliness, sustainability, compatibility with other systems, etc. That's where the students' help proved invaluable.
During an introductory day, the students learned how Musea Brugge works. In an exercise based on historical sources, they mapped out a social network of students and masters themselves. Inspired by this, in the autumn of 2024 they tackled our question under the guidance of their teacher. They researched existing data management systems, compared functionalities and analysed pros and cons. The resulting final report provides valuable guidance for the development of a suitable data model. A significant step forward for our research project, for which we are particularly grateful to the students. To be continued...
Thanks to the continuation of the registration of our academic sub-collection, around 350 additional figure studies are now available online on the Musea Brugge collection page. Each study has been meticulously catalogued, with detailed attention to subject, annotations and condition. In order to attribute the works to specific artists, we have consulted historical newspapers in which the results of academic competitions were published. Each study has been professionally photographed and can be viewed in razor-sharp detail in an IIIF viewer.
The majority of these newly accessible studies date from 1892 to 1926, complementing the previously registered works from 1757 to 1892. They provide a fascinating insight into the art education of the period, from the directorship of Louis Delacenserie (1889-1909) to that of Flori Van Acker (1910-1926). For the aspiring artists, it was relentless work. In addition to practising from prints, plaster casts and nude models, they honed their skills in subjects such as expression, composition and still life. We also catalogued the entire collection of academic anatomy studies from 1860 to 1913. In the Anatomy course, students studied both the bone structures and the muscle composition of the human body.
Apprentice-Master II is supported by the Flemish Government and made possible through collaboration with the following partners: RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History, Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), Academia Belgica, Bruges Academy-DKO, Bruges City Archives, University of Antwerp, Ghent University and the Royal Library of Belgium.
