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Léon Spilliaert (also Leon Spilliaert; 28 July 1881 â€“ 23 November 1946) was a Belgian draughtsman, illustrator, lithographer and painter. In his early career, he contributed to the development of
symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...
in the visual arts in Belgium. He frequented the milieu of Belgian symbolist writers, of which
Maurice Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in ...
and
Émile Verhaeren Émile Adolphe Gustave Verhaeren (; 21 May 1855 â€“ 27 November 1916) was a Belgian poet and art critic who wrote in the French language. He was one of the founders of the school of Symbolism and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Lit ...
were the best known members. His work was inspired by visual and literary works by
Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( ; ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work ''The Scream'' has become one of Western art's most acclaimed images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dread of inher ...
,
Fernand Khnopff Fernand Edmond Jean Marie Khnopff (12 September 1858 â€“ 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 ...
,
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
,
Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche became the youngest pro ...
and Lautréamont. His subject matter was wide-ranging and included self-portraits, marines, forest views, portraits, still lifes, airships, dolls and genre scenes. He was a prolific illustrator of contemporary and historical literary works. His style is characterized by tenebrism and simplicity of form, and the bitter and mysterious expression of his characters and landscapes.


Biography

Spilliaert was born in
Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...
, the oldest of seven children of Léonard-Hubert Spilliaert, a perfumer, and his wife Léonie (née Jonckheere). From childhood, he displayed an interest in art and drawing. A prolific doodler and autodidact, he was predominantly a self-taught artist. Sickly and reclusive, he spent most of his youth sketching scenes of ordinary life and the Belgian countryside. In 1899, at the age of 18, he entered the Bruges Academy of Art as a pupil of Pieter Raoux. Among his classmates were Léon Slabbinck and Cornelis Leegenhoek. However, he soon became disappointed and left the academy in January 1900. For this lack of formal artistic training, Spilliaert is considered more of an autodidact. When he was 21, Spilliaert went to work in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
for Edmond Deman, a publisher of the works of symbolist writers, for which Spilliaert was to design illustrations. Deman introduced Léon Spilliaert to the art scene in Brussels. It was also there that he discovered the work of the old masters and contemporary painters through reproductions and exhibited works of art. Spilliaert stayed with Deman until January 1904. He had an affair with the 17-year old daughter of Deman which ended in a painful breakup which sent Spilliaert into a depression. At the end of January 1904, Spilliaert left Brussels for Paris to try his luck with a publisher or printer of art books. Deman gave him a letter addressed to the writer Emile Verhaeren asking him to offer Spilliaert all the help he needed. In February 1904 Spilliaert met Verhaeren, who lived in Saint-Cloud, in Paris. A great friendship quickly developed between the two men. Verhaeren bought some of his works and introduced him to his friends and art dealers. One of them was Clovis Sagot, who at the time was exhibiting works by Pablo Picasso. Between 1907 and 1913, Léon Spilliaert exhibited his work at various events: Salon de Printemps de Jean De Mot, Salon des Indépendants de Bruxelles, the salon of the Brussels Doe Stil Voort and the exhibition Les Bleus de la G.G.G. in Brussels. In 1916 he married Rachel Vergison. They settled in Brussels, where their daughter was born. After the First World War, he collaborates with the Sélection group, which exhibits his work for many years. In 1922, the first exhibition entirely dedicated to his paintings takes place at the Brussels gallery Centaure. From 1925 to 1931, his work hangs in the Kursaal in Ostend. In 1937, he joined the Compagnons de l'Art. In 1922 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Crown. He died on 23 November 1946 in Brussels.


Work

Watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...
,
gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouach ...
,
pastel A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...
, and
charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...
—often in combination—were the means by which he produced many of his best works, among which are a number of monochrome self-portraits executed in the early years of the twentieth century. Spilliaert's expressive use of black finds parallels in the work of
Odilon Redon Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; ; 20 April 18406 July 1916) was a French Symbolist painting, Symbolist draftsman, printmaker, and painter. Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, Redon worked almost exc ...
, who was a significant influence. Frequently depicting a lone figure in a dreamlike space, Spilliaert's paintings convey a sense of melancholy and silence. His later work shows a concentration on seascapes. Among the best-known works of Léon Spilliaert are the images ''Digue la nuit'' and ''Clair de Lune et Lumières''. Both works are in the
Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...
in Paris. Most of Spilliaert's works are marked by an oppressive alien and elegiac atmosphere. In ''Digue la nuit'' (1908), the painter removes any naturalistic characteristics of the landscape depicted in the image and creates a stylization in which the location, that serves as a template, is redesigned to become the mirror of a state of mind. Solitude, mystery, and hallucination are suggested by the landscape. In ''Clair de Lune et Lumières'' (c. 1909), the colonnade and arcades of the façade of the Kursaal ballroom on the seawall in Ostend served Spilliaert as a basis for the composition of an urban landscape. In this pastel painting, he catches the eerie transformation of the architecture at night and the strangeness that comes from artificial lighting. With its cosmic, metaphysical traits ''Clair de Lune et Lumières'' reveals the influence of Van Gogh, and is reminiscent of ''
The Starry Night ''The Starry Night'', often called simply ''Starry Night'', is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Sain ...
''. In the period 1902–1909, Spilliaert concentrated on creating complex, profound self-portraits of an introspective nature. His 1903 ''Self-Portrait with Masks'' (
Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...
) is a dramatic self-presentation with ghostly apparitions in the background and a wry face in three-quarter pose. This image may be regarded as a prototype for the three-quarter-portraits Spilliaert created later.


Legacy

Ian Wilson's ''Spilliaert's Beach'', for violin and piano, was inspired by and named for the painting ''Moonlight Beach''.


References and notes


Bibliography

* * * This text fully copied and surprisingly only signed by Anne Adriaens-Pannier on the coverbook: Anne Adriaens-Pannier & Alain Jacobs(author of text) : "Léon Spilliaert : de verzameling van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België = la collection de la Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique", Antwerpen : Pandora Publishers NV , 2018. This edition accompanies the exhibition "Léon Spilliaert. De verzameling van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België" in The Venetiaanse Gaanderijen van 30 juni tot 30 September 2018. * *


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spilliaert, Leon 1881 births 1946 deaths 20th-century Belgian painters Belgian Symbolist painters Belgian graphic designers Artists from Ostend