Leon Spilliaert

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Leon Spilliaert (born July 28, 1881 in Ostend / Belgium , † November 23, 1946 in Brussels , also Léon Spilliaert ) was a Belgian painter and draftsman . His work combines symbolism and expressionism . He spent most of his life in his birthplace, the former royal seaside resort of Ostend on the Belgian North Sea coast, which provided him with a variety of motifs. His often gloomy works are often characterized by fear and loneliness. His sea and beach pictures do not show the cheerful life on the coast, but an inhospitable, dreary place.

Life

Leon Spilliaert was the son of Leonhard-Hubert Spilliaert (1851-1928) and Leonie Jonckheere (1853-1937). The father worked as a hairdresser and made perfume, which made him purveyor to the court of the Belgian King Leopold II and the family prospered. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Kapellestraat, Ostend's main shopping street. Spilliaert, who was often ill, attended the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwecollege and from 1899 the Art Academy in Bruges . He left the academy in mid-January 1900 and developed his artistic repertoire as an autodidact . In the same year he and his father visited the world exhibition in Paris, where he got to know the works of the symbolists Jan Toorop and Giovanni Segantini , Ferdinand Hodler , the Art Nouveau painters Gustav Klimt and Aubrey Beardsley and those of Walter Cranes . From 1902 to 1904 he worked for the Brussels publisher Edmond Deman (1857-1918), who promoted him as a painter. Still, the relationship between the two men was difficult. In 1904 Spilliaert went to Paris, where he came into contact with the Belgian poet Émile Verhaeren with the help of a letter of recommendation from Deman . The two became close friends. Towards the end of the year Spilliaert returned to Ostend.

Before Spilliaert showed his work in the first exhibition, the newspaper "Le Carillon" published in Ostend reported on the painter on July 14, 1908. Soon afterwards he took part in the summer exhibition in the Kursaal in Ostend and in 1909 in Jean De Mot's spring salon in Brussels. From 1909 to 1910 he had an attic studio with a view of the port of Ostend. In 1912 he exhibited in Brussels salons Doe stil voort, Le Sillon and in the Georges Giroux gallery and in Paris with Henri Vandeputte. With the beginning of the First World War he was drafted into the Garde Civique, the vigilante group, which was disbanded that same year.

On December 23, 1916, he married Rachel Vergison; their daughter Madeleine was born on November 15, 1917. She died in 2005. In 1917 the family moved to Brussels, where they lived until 1922. In 1920 Spilliaert joined the group “Sélection. Atelier d'Art Contemporain ”founded by Paul-Gustave Van Hecke and André De Ridder. In 1922 Spilliaert returned to Ostend with her family and lived in various apartments until she moved to Poststraat 1 near Leopoldpark in 1932. Characteristics of the park also appear frequently in his paintings. In 1930 Spilliaert took part in the unveiling of the monument with which the city of Ostend honored the painter James Ensor . In 1932 the Belgian state granted him a travel grant. A long journey that he made with his daughter took him to Italy, Switzerland and Austria. In 1935 the family moved to Brussels again so that their daughter Madeleine could study at the Royal Conservatory. In 1937 Spilliaert joined the group "Les Compagnons de l'Art". With the beginning of the Second World War he refused to exhibit his works in Germany. In 1944 the “Palace of Fine Arts” in Brussels showed a major retrospective.

One of his paintings plays a central role in the comic series Rider on the Storm by Gero (scenarist) and Baudouin Deville (draftsman) (Volume 1 2012 by Paquet, November 2014, in German by Salleck Publications).

Works

The better-known works by Leon Spilliaert include the pictures "Digue la nuit" and "Clair de Lune et lumières". Both works are now exhibited in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Most of Spilliaert's works are characterized by an oppressively strange and elegiac atmosphere. This is also the case with “Digue la nuit” from 1908. Here the painter removes any naturalistic characteristics of the landscape depicted in the picture, thus creating a stylization in which the location serving as a template is completely redesigned. In a way that makes it a mirror of a state of mind. Loneliness, mystery, hallucination - all of this eats its way into the landscape.

“Clair de Lune et lumières” was created around 1909, but it can no longer be determined exactly. Spilliaert used the colonnade and arcades of the facade of the Kursaal ballroom on the dike in Ostend as the basis for the composition of this urban landscape. In this pastel painting, he captures the eerie transformation of the architecture at night as well as the strangeness that artificial lighting emits. With its cosmic, metaphysical features, “Clair de Lune et lumières” reveals influences from Van Gogh. In particular, one feels reminded of “Starry Night” at the reception.

In the period between 1902 and 1909, Spilliaert concentrated on creating complex, profound self-portraits of an introspective nature. His self-portrait from 1903 (Portrait de l'artiste par lui-même) stands out. Here Leon Spilliaert uses a dramatic self-staging with ghostly apparitions in the background and a tortured face in a three-quarter pose. This picture can clearly be called a prototype for the three-quarter portraits that Spilliaert later created.

Exhibitions

In 2006, Ostend honored Spilliaert 60 years after his death with an exhibition of works showing motifs from the port city. The exhibition was on view in the Venetian Gallery on the Sea Dike under the title "Brise d'Ostende". An extensive retrospective was on view from September 22, 2006 to February 3, 2007 in the Royal Museums for Fine Arts in Brussels.

literature

  • Anne Adriaens-Pannie: Leon Spilliaert: Le Regard De L 'Ame. Bertrams, 2006, ISBN 9-05544-628-9
  • Léon Spilliaert: Léon Spilliaert. Caja Duero (Salamanca) - Obra Social Y Cultural, 2006, ISBN 8-48713-294-4
  • Norbert Hostyn: Leon Spilliaert: Life and Work. Stichting Kunstboek, 2007, ISBN 9-05856-199-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/oeuvres-commentees/arts-graphiques/commentaire_id/digue-la-nuit-22752.html?tx_commentaire_pi1%5BpidLi%5D=848&tx_commentaire_pi1%5Bfrom%5Hash .845& c = 9b869e5698
  2. ↑ http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/oeuvres-commentees/arts-graphiques/commentaire_id/clair-de-lune-et-lumieres-21735.html?tx_commentaire_pi1%5BpidLi%5D=848&tx_commentaire_pi1%5Bfrom % 5D = 845 & cHash = e4d2102898
  3. ↑ http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/oeuvres-commentees/arts-graphiques/commentaire_id/portrait-de-lartiste-par-lui-meme-9680.html?tx_commentaire_pi1%5BpidLi%5D=848&tx_commentaire_pi1 % 5Bfrom% 5D = 845 & cHash = d973c5bcd3
personal data
SURNAME Spilliaert, Leon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 28, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH East End
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1946
Place of death Brussels