Léon Spilliaert: A Mysterious World Between Light And Darkness

The work of largely self-taught artist Léon Spilliaert lives in a dreamy ghost-like space between Symbolism and Expressionism. Created mainly through ink, gouache, watercolour, pencils, chalk, Conté crayon and pastel, Spilliaert produced strange and moody, dramatically lit self-portraits and eerie landscapes of his home town of Ostend on the Belgian coast. As with his compatriot James Ensor who loved the place, Spilliaert’s Ostend is one of intrigue and otherworldliness, represented by rhythmic blurs of light and colour.

In his work you can feel the pull of something out there, unseen in the gloom. Is anyone there? Spilliaert is. He’s alone at night walking along the coast. But where is everyone else? All gone, perhaps, or hiding in the shadows?

 

Léon Spilliaert, A Potted History

Léon Spilliaert was born in 1881 in the town of Ostend on the northwest coast of Belgium. He studied the philosophy of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and read the work of Edgar Allan Poe.

Having began a degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bruges at 18, his studies were interrupted by stomach ulcers. He dropped out and returned home to pursue a self-taught artistic practice, splitting his time between his home town and Brussels.

Encouraged to draw by his close and large family (Spilliaert was the eldest of seven), his father took him to the World’s Fair in Paris, in 1900, and bought him the large box of coloured pastels that is now on display at the Mu.Zee in Ostend. He liked the dark colours best. They’re worn down. The lighter, sunnier colours are virtually untouched.

 

At age 21, Spilliaert went to work in Brussels for Edmond Deman (1857–1918), a publisher of the works of symbolist writers, for which Spilliaert was to design illustrations. Following a brief affair with Deman’s daughter, in 1904 Spilliaert left Brussels for Paris to work as a publisher or printer of art books. Deman gave him a letter addressed to the Belgian writer Emile Verhaeren (21 May 1855 – 27 November 1916) asking him to offer Spilliaert all the help he needed. Verhaeren bought some of his works and introduced him to his friends and art dealers.

Between 1907 and 1913, Spilliaert exhibited 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 collaborated with the Sélection group, which exhibits his work for many years. In 1922, the first exhibition entirely dedicated to his paintings was held at the Brussels gallery Centaure. 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.

 

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