Museum De Reede

Museum De Reede is a private graphic arts museum in Antwerp devoted entirely to works on paper — lithographs, etchings, woodcuts and drawings. It was founded in 2017 by Dutch collector Harry Rutten and has built its identity around a deliberately narrow focus: rather than covering art broadly, it centers on three masters of printmaking — Francisco Goya, Félicien Rops and Edvard Munch.

Where is the museum located?

The museum stands on the Ernest Van Dijckkaai quay, right in the historic heart of Antwerp, directly across from the medieval fortress 't Steen. The building it occupies once housed offices of inland shipping companies, which explains its name: "Reede" (in its older spelling) refers to a roadstead, an anchorage where ships would wait before entering the harbor. The name is a deliberate nod to the 16th and 17th centuries, the golden age of Antwerp's great engravers, even though the building itself is part of a residential complex completed around 2000.

What is in the collection?

Spread across two floors totalling roughly 500 square metres, the museum displays more than 300 works. Each of the three central artists has a room of his own. The holdings include 140 etchings by Francisco Goya, 37 prints by Félicien Rops and 32 lithographs by Edvard Munch, alongside a broader collection of nearly a thousand works on paper by more than eighty artists from seven countries, spanning five centuries from the 17th to the 21st. Beyond the permanent display, the museum regularly hosts temporary exhibitions that put its core holdings in dialogue with other artists' work — one recent example, staged as part of the Europalia España festival, brought together close to two hundred of Goya's aquatints from series such as "Los Caprichos" and "Los Desastres de la Guerra."

What is a visit like?

Museum De Reede is a compact, intimate space, and visitors move through it room by room at an unhurried pace. Because the collection consists of small, finely worked prints, the museum provides magnifying glasses so visitors can study the fine detail of techniques like etching and lithography — details that are easy to miss at a glance but central to why these works are prized.

Frequently asked questions

Who founded Museum De Reede? The museum was established in 2017 by collector Harry Rutten, who built the core collection around Goya, Rops and Munch.

What kind of art does the museum focus on? Exclusively graphic art — works on paper such as lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, engravings and drawings, with no paintings or sculpture.

Where does the name "De Reede" come from? From the old anchorage that once existed at this stretch of the quay, referencing Antwerp's trading history and the era of its great engravers.

Does the museum hold temporary exhibitions? Yes, alongside its permanent collection it regularly stages themed shows, including exhibitions dedicated entirely to Goya's work.