Jan Frans De Boever (

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

, Belgium, 8 June 1872 – 23 May 1949) was a Belgian

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 ...

painter. While considered a successful artist during most of his lifetime, his

megalomania Megalomania is an obsession with power and wealth, and a passion for grand schemes. Megalomania or megalomaniac may also refer to: Psychology * Narcissistic personality disorder * Grandiose delusions * Omnipotence (psychoanalysis), a stage ...

c character made him a solitary and isolated individual. Jan Frans De Boever received his training in Ghent at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts under Louis Tytgadt, whose niece he married. Tytgadt provided him with an introduction to important artistic circles in his city, and he became a recognised celebrity at official exhibitions in Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, and Liège. From 1909 onwards, he modified his style radically, painting women and

prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...

s in morbid and bizarre settings, with skeletons,

diabolism Satanism is a group of Ideology, ideological and Philosophy, philosophical beliefs based on Satan. Contemporary religious practice of Satanism began with the founding of the atheistic Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in the United States in 19 ...

, subservient men and

eroticism Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, ...

dominating his paintings. These paintings were allegorical and mythological, reflecting romantic imagery and depicting the universal struggle of good against evil. In 1914, he started to illustrate

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fr ...

's "

Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; en, The Flowers of Evil, italic=yes) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First publish ...

" for the wealthy art-collector Speltinckx. Up to 1924, he made approximately 157 gouaches for the poems, though only 86 have been recovered. Once he had discovered his style, a form of Symbolism belonging to the

decadent movement The Decadent movement (Fr. ''décadence'', “decay”) was a late-19th-century artistic and literary movement, centered in Western Europe, that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality. The Decadent movement first flourishe ...

, he ignored ongoing artistic developments and drew his inspiration from literature, music, and mythology. He was still inspired by patriotism, creating several paintings concerning the World Wars, displaying death and catastrophe in the Symbolist style. His paintings were very successful until 1935 when he suffered a financial crisis. He reduced his prices and continued to paint in the same Symbolist fashion until his death in 1949.

References

* Achille Cavens ''J.F. De Boever et son oeuvre'' in "Les Débats" dd. 1.9.1931 p. 6. * Roger De Buyst ''Jan-Frans De Boever, leven en werk 1872-1949'' Deurle 1984. * Jan Boddaert, Roger De Buyst ''Oeuvrecatalogus Jan Frans De Boever'' Ghent 1993 * Jan Boddaert, Roger De Buyst ''Jean François De Boever, sa vie et son oeuvre'' Ghent 1996. ;Specific

External links

Jan Frans De Boever - Biographywww.jdeboever.be - site on Jan Frans De Boever and his work
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Boever, Jan Frans Symbolist painters Belgian Symbolist painters 1872 births 1949 deaths 20th-century Belgian painters