Léon spilliaert self-portrait

Leon spilliaert prints
Léon spilliaert royal academy
Discover the visionary work of Belgian artist Léon Spilliaert – from his celebrated self-portraits to dreamlike scenes of the North Sea coast.

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The largest Belgian artist-symbolist, and designer.. Leon Spilliaert was the main representative of symbolism in the arts of Belgium, while known for his painting and graphic work. In the painting of Spilliaert is dominated by dark tones or well-defined contrasts between dark and light. Certain themes present throughout his oeuvre: the female figure, often grotesque; still life, very simple in composition and is designed in very strict tones; as simple landscapes, often with stairs or walkway light on the water. Around 1910 he was depicted airships.

It held the stories related to life and death, in particular, he repeatedly depicted the crucifixion. In the last period of his life Spilliaert all paid more attention to the landscape and during the war, wrote almost exclusively in the trees. His initial sources of inspiration were bottles and flasks, he had seen in a perfume shop of his father in Ostend. However, in 1889, he briefly Studied at Terenacademie in Bruges. His early work is steeped in symbolism and served His readings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Maurice Maeterlinck, for e

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Detail - Bomen bij valavond, 1924

(FR) Détail - Arbres à la nuit tombante, 1924

Léon Spilliaert - Biography

Spilliaert (1881 - 1946) was born in Ostend, the oldest of seven children of Léonard-Hubert Spilliaert, who was a perfumer, and 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.

When he was 21 he went to work in Brussels for Edmond Demon, a publisher of the works of symbolist writers, which Spilliaert was to illustrate. He especially admired the work of Edgar Allan Poe.

Watercolor, gouache, and charcoal were the means by which he produced much of his best work, including a number of self-portraits executed in black crayon in the early years of the twentieth century. A significant influence on Spilliaert was Odilon Redon, whose expressive use of black finds parallels in his own work.

Frequently depicting a lone figure i

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Léon Spilliaert

Biography of Léon Spilliaert ( 1881-1946 )

"I'd like to extract the essence of what I see, the reality of what is, and much more than a finished image, the idea moves in the depths of the night. I was born into a strange world and all I have to approach it is the strangeness of sensations." Stéphane Lambert

Léon Spilliaert was born on July 28th, 1881 in Ostend, on the Belgian coast, into a middle-class family. His father ran a prosperous perfume business that supplied the Belgian king's court, as well as a hairdressing salon. A sensitive, introverted child, he showed an early interest in painting and literature. Fragile, a thinker and a dreamer, he was often lost in his inner world. During his school years, he developed a keen interest in poetry and philosophy, particularly Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, and filled his school notebooks with drawings. In 1900, after only a few months at the Bruges Academy of Fine Arts, he abandoned his studies for health reasons and was struck off the Academy register. He then travelled to Paris with his fa