Léon Spilliaert at the Museum of Ixelles
By Astrid Herkens, Research Associate, Museum of Ixelles
The works of Léon Spilliaert at the Museum of Ixelles are representative of the various aspects of his oeuvre and his artistic development over time.
The ensemble of eleven original works on paper formed gradually, through acquisitions, donations from the artist’s entourage, and also as the State and private collectors deposited works at the museum. One purchase was made during the artist’s lifetime: in 1938 Intérieur (Interior) (1908), an eerie view of an empty bedroom, was purchased for the municipal collections of Ixelles. In 1961, fifteen years after his death, the Museum of Ixelles devoted a retrospective to Spilliaert. On this occasion his widow Rachel Spilliaert-Vergison gave the museum a Pieta (1910), created using pastel and coloured pencil.
A friend of Spilliaert made another significant donation a year earlier. In 1960, Paule Louveigné-Deman (1886-1966), daughter of the publisher Edmond Deman (Spilliaert's first employer and major promoter of his work), donated his 1905 portrait of her in ink wash to the museum. Louveigné-Deman also donated Le Sculpteur de masques (The Sculptor of Masks), a 1907 illustration design for a play by Fernand Crommelynck, published by Deman.
Seven works received as deposits from the Belgian State and collectors complete the collection, amongst which one of Spilliaert’s masterpieces, La nuit (The Night) (1908), exhibited all over the world, from Paris to Tokyo.
