Installed rue Isabelle today disappeared which linked the coudenberg to the Mont des Arts, the boarding school that hosted them was located on the site of the current Palais des Beaux-Arts. The experience acquired during their stay played a major role in their lives as in their work, especially for Charlotte, the eldest born in 1816, which remained two years on the spot, his sister having left fifteen months earlier.
A bright course
It is this experience and the influence that it undergoes that evokes, beyond a clear translation, the British Helen Macewan who, after having taken up residence in Buxelles in 2004, became interested in Charlotte in particular. Not only does she invite us to go back in a city in full evolution, but to rub shoulders with historical figures who left their mark and touched in one way or the other novelist in one way. Thus from the archduchess Isabelle, so appreciated by the population, which left its name to rue Isabelle. Thus of Charles de Lorraine, patron of the arts, at the origin of the square and the royal district that Charlotte loved so much. This constantly mixes its impressions of a city observed with a satirical eye, but also tender, and those of its heroines in the two books inspired by its observations: Villette – This is how she nicknamed Brussels – and The teacher – influenced by the love she had to the husband of the director of the establishment Héger.
In her books, she always evokes someone or something – sometimes by changing the name – that she had observed and which was significant for the city and its history. Thus of Léopold I seen at a concert where Léopold II, aged eight, was also present and of which a portrait was given in nuances and contrasts.
Beyond Charlotte Brontë and her stay in Brussels-cheaper and more friendly than France for the one who wanted to learn French-, it is a bright journey in history and evolution to Bozar of what was going to become the capital of Europe that this book invites. And it’s captivating.
Brussels. From rue Isabelle to Bozar | Narrative | Helen Macewan | Samsa editions, 200 pp., With illustrations, € 24
EXTRACT
“Instead of the school where the Brontë sisters had taken drawing lessons and where Emily had given piano lessons, was an ultra-modern concert hall and exhibition halls for contemporary art. This new building, qualified as a high place of the arts was the Palais des Beaux-Arts by Victor Horta, now known as Bozar.”
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