The Pro Arte String Quartet was founded by Alphonse Onnou in Brussels in 1912. After becoming the Court Quartet to Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, the quartet began the first of many international tours in 1919. After the First World War it became famous for the performance of modern music and for its extensive recordings of Haydn. The composers Bartók, Milhaud and Honegger entrusted to the ensemble new works to premiere. The Pro Arte Quartet made its American debut in 1926 in New York and returned for 30 tours to the United States, often under the auspices of the chamber music patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. It performed at the inauguration of the Hall of Music at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. In 1932 it was named the "Quatuor de la Cour de Belgique". Its first visit to Madison, Wisconsin was in 1938. Two years later, the musicians were stranded in Madison by the outbreak of World War II and accepted a residency at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the first such residency at a major American university.

The Royal Conservatory of Brussels holds a comprehensive collection of autograph and printed Second Violin scores from Laurent Halleux, who joined the Pro Arte Quartet when he was only fifteen and stayed with the group till 1943. It sheds light on the works performed by the quartet, especially from American composers from the early C20 such as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris or Louis Gruenberg.

While touring in Wisconsin in 1941 they were offered a permanent residency. In 1944, following the disbanding of the Kolisch Quartet, Rudolf Kolisch took up leadership of the Pro Arte in 1944, combined with a Wisconsin Professorship. In 1946, Robert Maas became the original cellist in the newly formed Paganini Quartet. In 1947, violist Germain Prevost, the last of the original members, resigned. In the late 1950s, the Pro Arte Quartet became members of the University's School of Music faculty in addition to being artists-in-residence.