''Les XX'' (
French; "''Les Vingt''"; ; ) was a group of twenty
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
painters, designers and sculptors, formed in 1883 by the
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
lawyer, publisher, and entrepreneur
Octave Maus
Octave Maus (12 June 1856 – 26 November 1919) was a Belgian art critic, writer and lawyer.
Maus worked with fellow writer/lawyer Edmond Picard, and they together with Victor Arnould and Eugène Robert founded the weekly '' L'Art moderne'' ...
. For ten years, they held an annual exhibition of their art; each year 20 other international artists were also invited to participate in their exhibition. Painters invited include
Camille Pissarro
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...
(1887, 1889, 1891),
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
(1886, 1889),
Georges Seurat
Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough su ...
(1887, 1889, 1891, 1892),
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
(1889, 1891),
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...
(1890), and
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...
(1890, 1891 retrospective).
''Les XX'' was in some ways a successor to another group,
L'Essor
''L'Essor'' (fr. ''Progress'') is the state-owned national daily newspaper published in Bamako, Mali. Its motto is "''La Voix du Peuple''" ("The Voice of the People").
History
''L'Essor'' was first published in 1949, and from 1953 was the officia ...
. The rejection of
Ensor The following people have the surname Ensor:
* Abram G. Ensor (died 1959), American politician
* Arthur John Ensor (1905–1995), British-Canadian painter and industrial designer
* Beatrice Ensor (1885–1974), English theosophical educator and pe ...
's ''
The Oyster Eater'' in 1883 by L'Essor Salon, following the earlier rejection by the Antwerp Salon, was one of the events that led to the formation of ''Les XX''.
In 1893, the society of ''Les XX'' was transformed into "''
La Libre Esthétique
''La Libre Esthétique'' ( French; "The Free Aesthetics") was an artistic society founded in 1893 in Brussels, Belgium to continue the efforts of the artists' group ''Les XX'' dissolved the same year. To reduce conflicts between artists invited or ...
''".
History
''Les XX'' was founded on 28 October 1883 in Brussels and held annual shows there between 1884 and 1893, usually in January–March. The group was founded by 11 artists who were unhappy with the conservative policies of both the official academic Salon and the internal bureaucracy of ''
L'Essor
''L'Essor'' (fr. ''Progress'') is the state-owned national daily newspaper published in Bamako, Mali. Its motto is "''La Voix du Peuple''" ("The Voice of the People").
History
''L'Essor'' was first published in 1949, and from 1953 was the officia ...
'', under a governing committee of twenty members. Unlike ''L'Essor'' ('Soaring'), which had also been set up in opposition to the Salon, ''Les XX'' had no president or governing committee. Instead
Octave Maus
Octave Maus (12 June 1856 – 26 November 1919) was a Belgian art critic, writer and lawyer.
Maus worked with fellow writer/lawyer Edmond Picard, and they together with Victor Arnould and Eugène Robert founded the weekly '' L'Art moderne'' ...
(a lawyer who was also an art critic and journalist) acted as the secretary of ''Les XX'', while other duties, including the organization of the annual exhibitions, were dispatched by a rotating committee of three members. A further nine artists were invited to join to bring the group membership of ''Les XX'' to twenty. In addition to the exhibits of its Belgian members, foreign artists were also invited to exhibit.
[ ]
There was a close tie between art, music and literature among the ''Les XX'' artists. During the exhibitions, there were literary lectures and discussions, and performances of new classical music, which from 1888 were organised by
Vincent d'Indy
Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (; 27 March 18512 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher. His influence as a teacher, in particular, was considerable. He was a co-founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris and also taught at the Par ...
,
with from 1889 until the end in 1893 very frequent performances by the
Quatuor Ysaÿe.
[ Concerts included recently composed music by ]Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
, Ernest Chausson
Amédée-Ernest Chausson (; 20 January 1855 – 10 June 1899) was a French Romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.
Life
Born in Paris into an affluent bourgeois family, Chausson was the sole surviving child of a ...
and Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers ...
. Leading exponents of the Symbolist
Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...
movement who gave lectures include Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...
, Théodore de Wyzewa and Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' in international and ...
.[
Together with Maus, the influential jurist ]Edmond Picard
Edmond Picard (15 December 1836 – 19 February 1924) was a Belgian jurist and writer. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times.
Career
He was lawyer at the court of appeal and the Court of Cassation of Belgium. He was a ...
and the Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*'' Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*'' Emil and the Detecti ...
provided the driving force behind an associated periodical, ''L'Art Moderne
''L'Art Moderne'' was a weekly review of the arts and literature published in Brussels from March 1881 until the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. It was established by a number of lawyers based in Brussels who felt the need for a r ...
'', which was started in 1881. This publication aggressively defended ''Les XX'' from attacks by critics and members of the visiting public. Picard polemically fomented tensions both with the artistic establishment and within ''Les XX''. By 1887, six of the more conservative original members had left, sometimes under pressure from Picard and Maus, to be replaced by artists who were more sympathetic to the cause. Altogether, ''Les XX'' had 32 members during the ten years of its existence.[
]
Eleven founding members
*James Ensor
James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for most of his life. He was associated with the artistic g ...
1860–1949 (member until 1893)
*Théo van Rysselberghe
Théophile "Théo" van Rysselberghe (23 November 1862 – 13 December 1926) was a Belgian neo-impressionist painter, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the twentieth century.
Biography
Early years
Born i ...
1862–1926 (member until 1893)[
*]Fernand Khnopff
Fernand Edmond Jean Marie Khnopff (12 September 1858 – 12 November 1921) was a Belgian symbolist painter.
Life Youth and training
Fernand Khnopff was born to a wealthy family that was part of the high bourgeoisie for generations. Khnopf ...
1858–1921 (member until 1893)
*Alfred William Finch
Alfred William (Willy) Finch (1854 –1930) was a ceramist and painter in the pointillist and Neo-Impressionist style. Born in Brussels to British parents, he spent most of his creative life in Finland.
Life and work
Alfred William Finch ...
[
*]Frantz Charlet
__NOTOC__
Frantz Charlet (1862–1928) was a Belgian painter, etcher, and lithographer.
Early life and career
An Impressionist, he was one of the founding members of the group Les XX. He studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Bruss ...
1862–1928[
*]Paul Du Bois
Paul Du Bois (; 1859–1938) was a Belgian sculptor and medalist, born in Aywaille, and died in Uccle, a municipality of Brussels (Belgium).
Du Bois was a student of Eugène Simonis and Charles van der Stappen. He studied from 1877 to 1883 ...
[
*]Charles Goethals
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...
c. 1853–85[
*]Darío de Regoyos
Darío de Regoyos y Valdés (November 1, 1857 – October 29, 1913) was a Spanish painter. He was notable for contributing to "the renewal of modern Spanish painting". A student of Carlos de Haes at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Ferna ...
(Spanish)[
* Willy Schlobach 1864–1951][
*]Guillaume Van Strydonck
Guillaume Van Strydonck (10 December 1861, Namsos – 2 July 1937, Saint-Gilles) was a Belgian painter. He was initially a realist, but later turned to impressionism.
Life and work
Van Strydonck was born in Norway, where his father was emplo ...
1861–1937[
*]Rodolphe Wytsman
Rodolphe Paul Marie Wytsman (11 March 1860 – 2 November 1927) was a Belgian Impressionist painter. He trained at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and was one of the founding members of Les XX, a group of avant-garde Belgian ar ...
1860–1927[
]
Nine invited members
* Guillaume Vogels
* Achille Chainaye 1862–1915
*Jean Delvin
Jean-Joseph Delvin (1853 – 1922, born in Ghent) was a Belgian painter who specialized in scenes with animals (primarily horses).
Life
He attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, where he studied under , and worked in the studios of J ...
1853–1922
*Jef Lambeaux
Jef Lambeaux or Josef Lambeaux (14 January 18525 June 1908) was a Belgian sculptor. His best known work is ''Temple of Human Passions'', a colossal marble bas-relief.
Early life and education
Lambeaux was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on 14 January ...
* Périclès Pantazis (Greek) 1849–1884
*Frans Simons
Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is '' Francis''.
Given name
* Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diplo ...
1855–1919
*Gustave Vanaise
Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to:
*Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film
* ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hungarian series of animated short cart ...
1854–1902
* Piet Verhaert 1852–1908
* Theodoor Verstraete 1851–1907
Twelve later invited members
*Félicien Rops
Félicien Victor Joseph Rops (7 July 1833 – 23 August 1898) was a Belgian artist associated with Symbolism and the Parisian Fin-de Siecle. He was a painter, illustrator, caricaturist and a prolific and innovative print maker, particularly in ...
1833–1898
*Georges Lemmen
Georges Lemmen (1865–1916) was a neo-impressionist painter from Belgium. He was a member of Les XX from 1888. His works include ''The Beach at Heist'', ''Aline Marechal'' and ''Vase of Flowers''. Yvonne Serruys studied in his workshop in Brus ...
1865–1916 (member starting 1888)[
*]George Minne
George (Georges) Minne (born ''Georgius Joannes Leonardus Minne''; 30 August 1866 – 18 February 1941) was a Belgian artist and sculptor famous for his idealized depictions of man's inner spiritual conflicts, including the "Kneeling Youth" scu ...
1866–1941
*Anna Boch
Anna Rosalie Boch (10 February 1848 – 25 February 1936) was a Belgian painter, born in Saint-Vaast, Hainaut. Anna Boch died in Ixelles in 1936 and is interred there in the Ixelles Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium.
Artistic style
Boch partici ...
1848–1926 (member 1885–1893: only female member)
*Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens van de Velde (; 3 April 1863 – 15 October 1957) was a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar, he is considered one of the founders of Art Nouveau in Belgium.'' ...
(member starting 1888)
*Guillaume Charlier
Guillaume Charlier (1854–1925) was a Belgian sculptor, most of whose works are now kept in the Charlier Museum in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode.
Life
Charlier was born in Ixelles, the eldest son of a large family. He was 15 years old in 1870 when ...
*Henry De Groux
Henry de Groux (15 September 1866 – 12 January 1930)"Colours of the War: Art Work of Belgian Soldiers at the Front (1914–1918): A Selection of the Collections kept at the Royal Army Museum in Brussels; published 2000; ; page 57 was a Belg ...
* Robert Picard (artist) b. 1870
*