Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar

He was born in Kampen in the Netherlands as a son of Joannes Kluysenaar and Garidenia Kluysenaar, a Dutch family of architects and engineers. Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar was the father of the Cluysenaar family. His descendants became famous Belgian painters, sculptors and architects. During the United Kingdom of the Netherlands his family settled in the southern Belgian provinces.

Cluysenaar studied architecture at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels under Tilman-François Suys. His teacher influenced him in his preference for the architecture of the Italian Renaissance.

Cluysenaer had a talent for business. He took the initiative for some very profitable real estate projects - such as the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert in Brussels - in which he played the double role of architect and co-financier. He also had a good reputation amongst the Belgian nobility and high bourgeoisie. He received many commissions for designing large town houses (so called "Hôtels"), Mansions and château's. He was always prepared to adapt his designs to the desires and taste of his elite patrons. The many private mansions he built greatly differ in style. Cluysenaar designed elegant Palladian villa's as well as more sturdy Gothic Revival castles.

His stylistic versatility is also apparent in the many public buildings he designed such as the Neo-Renaissance, Koninklijk Conservatorium/Conservatoire Royal in Brussels and the "Tudor style" railway station in Aalst.

A brief selection of the more than 200 projects in which Cluysenaar was involved:

"Châteaux" and other private residences

• "Hôtel" of baron Brugmann, rue d’Arenberg, Brussels (1844)
• "Hôtel Nagelmackers", Liège (1846)
• Château "de Bavay", Vorst (1851)
• Château Rey, today town hall of Drogenbos (1852–1853)
• Château of comte Ferdinand de Meeûs in Argenteuil near Waterloo (1856–1858)
• Hôtels de Meeûs, square Frère-Orban in Brussels (1861)
• De Viron Castle, currently town hall of Dilbeek (1862)
• Château of Vieux-Sart, Corroy-le-Grand (1864)
• Mansion of the violoncellist Adrien-François Servais in Halle (1859)

public buildings

• "Kiosque" in the park of Brussels (1840)
• Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, shopping arcade, Brussels (1845–1847)
• Concert Hall in Aachen, Germany (1846)
• "Panorama de la rue Royale" stairs and terraces surrounding the Congress Column, Brussels, 1847 (demolished)
• Marché de la Madeleine (Magdalenamarkt) covered market, Brussels (1847) (partly demolished)
• Galerie Borthier, shopping arcade, Brussels (1848)
• Railway stations for the "Société Dendre et Waes" in: Ternat (1856), Aalst (1856), Zandbergen (1860).
• "Hôpital des Aveugles", (home for blind people), Porte de Hal/Hallepoort, Brussels (1852).
• "Église de fer" (iron church) in Argenteuil (Waterloo) (1855–1862).
• Theatre and "Kurhaus" in Bad Homburg (1851, 1862–1866)
• Royal Conservatory of Brussels, rue de la Régence/Regentschapsstraat, Brussels, (1872–1876)

Fanny Cluysenaar (Madame Veuve Henry Heymans), Les Cluysenaar: une famille d’artistes, Brussels, Weissenbruch, 1928.

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