After a summer holiday in Ostend in 1921, Spilliaert moved back to his home town with his family in May 1922. He started working with oil paint around the same time. Along with Ensor and Permeke, he exhibited in Ostend with the Salon de l'Ecole de Paris at the Galerie d’Art Moderne on Langestraat.
As of late 1922, Spilliaert stayed at the country home of his friend and dealer Henri Vandeputte, in Grasse near Cannes. The latter was artistic director of the Ostend Kursaal from 1925 to 1931, during Spilliaert’s second Ostend period. Therefore, it is no coincidence that Spilliaert had several exhibitions there, including a retrospective in 1931. He also exhibited his work at the major Brussels gallery Le Centaure between 1922 and 1926 and with the Kunst van Heden group in Antwerp between 1921 and 1934.
In Ostend, Spilliaert met the young filmmaker Henri Storck, and also had contact with his mother, who ran a shoe shop. Blanche Hertoge in turn, Storck’s aunt and ardent admirer of Ensor ran Le Studio gallery. At Storck’s request, Spilliaert, who didn’t have much to do with film, joined the Club du cinéma d’Ostende, as did Ensor.
Although he dreamed of travelling in his youth, Spilliaert curiously turned down an offer to travel the world in 1927. A year later, Spilliaert’s father Léonard died. In 1932, a state subsidy did allow him to travel with his family to Italy, Switzerland and Austria. He created works in Venice and the Dolomites, among other places.
In 1933, Spilliaert met the young artist Mayou Iserentant (1903-1978), with whom he formed a close friendship as a mentor. Several specific motifs made their appearance in his art. From February 1928, dolls began to appear, some of which Henri Vandeputte gave as gifts to Spilliaert’s daughter Madeleine at the Kursaal. The recognisable dolls continued to intrigue Spilliaert until 1935.1
In the 1920s, Spilliaert also created a great deal of graphic work, illustrating a number of publications, among other things. In 1921, for example, he produced six line drawings for François Hellens’ collection of poems La femme au prisme. In 1931, Spilliaert went to sketch on location in the village of Basilly for Au temps que Nanette était perdue, a children’s book by Benoît Bouché. He also designed an engraving for Les flèches et la faux, a collection of fairy tales by Horace Van Offel. In the meantime, he drew several covers for the publication La Mascotte.
