“The Witch.” Franz Vinck, Wilhelm Geets, Karl Ooms, and P. van der Ouderaa, endeavour to perpetuate, while softening down, the style of historical painting so definitely formulated by Leys. Finally, Joseph Stallaert, a painter of classical subjects, is represented in the Brussels Gallery by “The Death of Dido.” Eugene Devaux, a remarkable draughtsman, should also be named.
Works by all those artists were to be seen in the Historical Exhibition of Belgian Art at Brussels, 1880. Camille Lemonnier, in his History of the Fine Arts in Belgium, discussed this Exhibition very fully, pointing out three distinct periods in the history of the century. The first, romantic, literary and artificial, extended from 1830 till nearly 1850; the second was a period of transition, domestic in feeling, gradually developing to realism in the course of about twenty years; the third began in the ’seventies, a time of careful study, especially in landscape. This was followed by the beginning of a fourth period, characterized by a freer sense of light and atmosphere.
Apart from the exclusive tendency, inevitable under bureaucratic administration, the mere arrangement on an antiquated plan of the great academic salons was unsuited to the display of works intended to represent individual feeling or peculiarities of pictorial treatment. Hence it was that a great many painters came to prefer smaller and more eclectic shows, leading to the fashion, which still persists, of exhibitions by clubs or associations. The Fine Arts Club at Brussels had long since afforded opportunities for showing the pictures of the Société Libre, founded in 1868, which were condemned by the authorities as tending to “revolutionize” art. After this, two associations of young painters were formed at Brussels with a view to organizing their own exhibitions.
The “Chrysalide” Club was founded in 1875, and the “Essor” (the “Soaring”) Club in 1876. In 1882, however, the Essor obtained leave to open their exhibition in a room in the Palais des Beaux Arts at Brussels. This tolerance was all the more appreciated by the younger party because a new departure was in course of development, again a modification in the effort to represent light in painting. The “neutral tint” school had given way to the school of “whiteness”; a luminous effect was to be sought by a free use of brilliant colour with a very full brush. But ere long this method proved unsatisfactory, and attention was now turned towards a “sincerer and acuter perception of local values”; and again the influence of certain French painters was brought to bear—those of the group headed by C. Monet, preparing for that of the French painter G. Seurat, the first who carried into practice the systematic decomposition of colour by the process known as pointillisme (the intimate juxtaposition of dots of colour). In 1884, in consequence of a division in the Essor Club, the “XX” Club was founded, who, though thus limiting their number, reserved the right of “issuing yearly invitations, and thus testifying the sympathy they felt with the most independent artists of Belgium and with those foreign painters with whom they had the most pronounced affinity.” For ten years the exhibitions of the “XX,” whose careful and artistic arrangements were in themselves admirable, were the fount in Belgium of discussions on art. The limit of its existence to ten years was determined when the club was formed; but as it was desirable that the principle of liberty in art should still be held in honour, M. Octave Maus, the secretary of the “XX” Club, organized the exhibitions of the Libre esthétique in and since 1894. Other clubs had been formed in Brussels: the Fine Art Society in 1891 and the “Furrow” (le Sillon) in 1893. In 1894 another breach in the Essor Club, which, growing very weak, was soon to disappear—as the “Art Union” and the Voorwaerts Club had done—led to the formation of the Society “for Art” (pour l’art); and in 1896 a party of that club established a salon of idealist art which favoured an exaggeration of the intellectual tendency already begun in the exhibitions of the “XX.” Subsequently, in the exhibitions of the Sillon and of the Labeur Clubs (founded in 1898) a reaction set in, in favour of heavy brown tones and ponderous composition. At Antwerp the influence of the local societies—the “Als Ik Kan,” the Independent Art Club, and the “XIII”—was less sensibly felt; it was, however, enough to confirm certain waverers in the direction of purely disinterested effort.
It would be impossible to classify into definite groups those painters whose first distinctive appearance was subsequent to the Historical Exhibition in 1880. Only an approximate grouping can be attempted by assigning each to the association in whose exhibitions he made the best display of what he aimed at expressing. Thus it was chiefly in the rooms of the Essor Club that works were shown by the following: L. Frédéric, a remarkable painter, combining wonderful facility of execution with a sincerely simple sentiment of homely pathos, represented at the Brussels Gallery by “Chalk Sellers”; E. Hoeterickx, a painter of crowds in the streets and parks; F. Seghers, a pleasing colourist, who had made flower-painting his speciality; two animal painters, F. van Leemputten, “Return from Work” (Brussels Gallery), and E. van Damme-Sylva, as well as the marine painter, A. Marcette. The landscape painters include J. de Greet, almost brutal in style, The Pool at Rouge-Cloître (Brussels Gallery), C. Wolles, and Hamesse. L. Houyoux, F. Halkett, L. Herbo are known for their portraits. And there are E. van Gelder, J. Mayné, A. Crespin, a learned decorative painter and E. Duyck, a graceful draughtsman, “A Dream” (Brussels Gallery). As designers may be named A. Heins, a clever illustrator, and A. Lynen, of a thoroughly Brussels type, keenly observant and satirical.
At the exhibitions of the “XX” were pictures by the following: Fernand Khnopff (“Memories,” a pastel, in Brussels Gallery), an admirer of the refined domesticity of English contemporary art, and of mystical art, as represented by Gustave Moreau; H. van der Velde, a well-known exponent of the new methods in applied art; J. Ensor, a whimsical nature, loving strange combinations of colour and inconsequent fancies (Brussels Gallery: “The Lamp Man”); Th. van Rysselberghe, a clever painter, especially in the technique of dot painting (pointillisme); W. Schlobach, a remarkable colourist of uncertain tendencies; Henry de Groux, son of Ch. de Groux, a seer of visions represented in violent tones and workmanship; G. Vogels, a painter of thaw and rain; G. van Strydoneck, R. Wytsman, J. Delvin, F. Charlet, Mlle A. Boch, all of whom have striven to bring light into their pictures; W. Finch and G. Lemmen.
To the triennial salons, to the exhibitions of the “Artistic” clubs, to the House of Art (Maison d’art), at Brussels, and to the various Antwerp clubs, the following have contributed: F. Courtens, Rosseels’s brilliant pupil, an astonishing painter with a heavy impasto (Brussels Gallery: “Coming out of Church”); J. de Lalaing, full of lofty aims, but showing in his painting the qualities of a sculptor (Brussels Gallery: “A Prehistoric Hunter”); E. Claus, a lover of bright colour, and a genuine landscape painter (Brussels Gallery: “A Flock on the Road”); A. Baertsoen, who delights in the quiet corners of old Flemish towns; H. Evenepoel, a fine artist whose premature death deprived the Belgian school of a highly distinguished personality (Brussels Gallery: “Child at Play”); G. Vanaise, a painter of huge historical subjects; Ch. Mertens, a refined artist; E. Motte, an interesting painter with a love of archaic methods (Brussels Gallery: “A Girl’s Head”); A. Lévèque, an accomplished draughtsman with a distinctive touch; L. Wolles, an admirable draughtsman; J. Leempoels, elaborate and minute; H. Richir, a portrait painter; J. van den Eeckhout, a clever pupil of Verheyden; J. Rosier, a skilful follower of Verlat; L. Abry, a painter of military subjects; E. Carpentier, E. Vanhove, Luyten and Desmeth.
Essentially of the Antwerp School are F. van Kuyck, P. Verhaert, de Jans, and Brunin of Ghent, Ch. Doudelet, C. Montald and van Biesbroeck.
There is a group of artists at Liége whose sincerity and high technical qualities have been recognized: A. Donnay, A. Rassenfosse, E. Berchmans, F. Marechal, Dewitte. Of lady painters: Mmes E. Beernaert, L. Héger and J. Wytsman paint landscape; Mmes B. Art, A. Ronner, G. Meunier and M. De Biėvre paint flowers. Mmes A. d’Anethan, Lambert de Rothschild, M. Philippson, H. Calais and M. A. Marcotte paint figures and portraits.
The chief exhibitors at the Société pour l’art have been A. Ciamberlani, a painter of large decorative compositions in subdued tones; H. Ottevaere, a painter of night or twilight landscapes; O. Coppens, R. Janssens and A. Hannotiau, who study old houses, deserted churches and dead cities; F. Baes, an excellent pupil of Frédéric Fabry, O. and J. Dierickx, painters of decorative figures; H. Meunier, an ingeniously decorative draughtsman; J. Delville, founder of the salons of idealist art.
Leading exhibitors at the Voorwaerts Club have been E. Laermans, a strange artist, as it were a Daumier with anchylose joints, but a colourist (Brussels Gallery: “A Flemish Peasant”); V. Gilsoul, a clever pupil of Courtens (Brussels Gallery: “The Kennel”); J. du Jardin, the writer of L’Art flamand, an important critical work illustrated by J. Middeleer.
Contributors to the exhibitions of the Sillon Club comprise G. M. Stevens, P. Verdussen, P. Matthieu, J. Gouweloos, Bastien, Blieck, Wagemans and Smeers;and V. Mignot, ingenious in designing posters.
At the exhibitions of water-colours have been seen the works of Huberti, F. Bingé, V. Uytterschaut, Stacquet and H. Cassiers, who work with light washes or a clever use of body colour; Hagemans, who paints with broad washes; Delaunois, the painter of mysterious interiors; Th. Lybaert, minute in his brushwork; M. Romberg and Titz, correct draughtsmen.
Since 1870 several important works of decorative painting in public buildings have been carried out in Belgium. Guffens, Swerts and Pauwels have succumbed to the influences of German art, often cold and stiff; A. and J. Devriendt, V. Lagye, W. Geets and Van der Ouderaa have followed more or less in the footsteps of Leys. J. Stallaert has cleverly revived a classic style. Emile Wauters and A. Hennebicq have adopted the traditions of Historical Painting; and so too have L. Gallait, A. Cluysenaar, J. de Lalaing and A. Bourland, though with a more decorative sense of conception and treatment. But of all these works, certainly the most remarkable in its artistic and intelligent fitness is that of M. Delbeke, in the market-hall at Ypres.
See Camille Lemonnier, Histoire des arts en Belgique; A. J. Wauters, La Peinture flamande; J. du Jardin, L’Art flamand. (F. K.*)
Holland
The entire Impressionist movement of the end of the 19th century failed to exercise the slightest influence upon the Dutch. They are only modern in so far as they again resort to the
