Anyone interested in Belgian fin-de-siècle art probably does not think of Germany first. Yet just across the border, there is something well worth seeing. Seelenlandschaften (Landscapes of the Soul) at the Arp Museum offers a fresh look at Belgian art around the turn of the century. Several key works from the collection of The Phoebus Foundation are on loan for the exhibition.
Visit to the Arp Museum during Landscapes of the Soul
The Arp Museum is located in Rolandseck, on the banks of the Rhine. The historic Bahnhof Rolandseck, built in 1856, forms an integral part of the museum. Arriving by train, visitors quite literally step straight into the building. Architect Richard Meier linked the former station to a contemporary museum complex set higher up against the hillside. A tunnel and a glass lift guide visitors gradually upwards, moving from the river landscape to the exhibition galleries. From the museum, the view opens out over the Rhine and the Siebengebirge on the opposite bank.
Seelenlandschaften (Landscapes of the Soul) turns its focus to inner worlds. Twenty-eight works from the collection of The Phoebus Foundation are shown in dialogue with twenty-seven paintings by French masters from the Rau Collection for UNICEF. Together, they explore the human soul in all its tension, mystery, and light.
Works by artists such as James Ensor, Léon Spilliaert and George Minne give shape to inner worlds. Among the Leie painters from Sint-Martens-Latem, dreamlike and at times mystical scenes prevail, reducing life to a quiet, essential visual language.
In other rooms, a sense of unease, irony, and even absurdity comes to the fore, moods closely tied to the spirit of the fin de siècle. These shifting emotional registers take shape in each space through a carefully orchestrated play of light and colour.
The work of Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp also fits seamlessly within this thematic framework. Both felt a strong affinity with the Belgian avant-garde around the turn of the century. The abstract forms on view in the museum are immediately recognisable and seem to arise from an inner movement, organic and unforced, like trees growing in a forest.
Although they never lived in Remagen, the choice of location is anything but accidental. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Bahnhof Rolandseck was far more than a stop along the line. It served as a lively meeting place for artists, musicians, and intellectuals. After Hans Arp passed away, his second wife sought to bring his work together in a setting that resonated with his spirit and ideas. The derelict station building was thus given a new lease of life as a centre for modern art. Arp remains at its core, yet always framed within a broader European context, one in which the collection of The Phoebus Foundation also finds its natural place.
Landscapes of the Soul is on view at the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck until 8 March 2026. More information can be found here.