Because Spilliaert worked with relatively fast, flexible materials and techniques on paper, he was able to create a large body of work, which includes an estimated 5000 works. This encompasses individual works, such as drawings, watercolours and pastels etc. (in which he often uses those media interchangeably) and prints such as dry needle prints or lithographs. He mainly used graphic techniques when illustrating others’ literary or poetic works.
Spilliaert often repeated certain elements in his work: seascapes, fisherwomen, still lifes, interiors and trees etc., of which there are a great many variations. These series of works resemble a search for a solution to a problem, with no definitive version or final answer. In some periods he was particularly productive. The period between 1907 and 1909 was quite remarkable. He produced many scenes of the dyke and seascapes, many still lifes and about a dozen of his best-known self-portraits. No coincidence then that he wrote to publisher Deman in June 1908: ‘I have created quite a few new pieces this winter, including still lifes and interiors which I hope to have the pleasure of showing you during the next visit to Brussels this September.’1
Consequently, mapping out Spilliaert’s entire œuvre is a mammoth task. This website features a selection of works from public and private collections. Spilliaert researcher Anne Adriaens-Pannier has been working for thirty years on an exhaustive overview in the form of a catalogue raisonné.
