Who was Léon Spilliaert

A mysterious artist and enigmatic works of art are bound to evoke questions. Questions that inevitably surface about the artist’s background, character, life choices and much more. Here you will find the beginnings of answers to all kinds of questions about Spilliaert.

Question

How was a title for a work by Spilliaert chosen?

Léon Spilliaert, Interior, ca. 1908, watercolour and coloured pencil on paper, 50 x 65 cm. Collections of the Museum of Ixelles, inv. CC 0766.

Question

Was Spilliaert unhappy?

Léon Spilliaert, Self-portrait with Red Pencil, 1908, Indian ink, gouache and pastels on paper, 85 x 69 cm. Ostend, Mu.ZEE, Collection of the City of Ostend, inv. SM000005. Foto Cedric Verhelst.

Question

Why did Spilliaert produce so many self-portraits?

Léon Spilliaert, Seascape, 1924, oil on canvas, 75 x 100 cm. Ostend, Mu.ZEE, Collection of the Flemish Community, inv. BS007091. Photo Cedric Verhelst.

Question

Spilliaert: painter or draughtsman?

Léon Spilliaert, Solitude, 1901, Indian ink, pencil and coloured pencil on paper, 24.5 x 32 cm. Private collection, on long-term loan to Mu.ZEE, inv. B000326. Photo Cedric Verhelst.

Question

Did Spilliaert speak French or the Ostend dialect?

Léon Spilliaert in the studio on Amsterdamstraat, Ostend, circa 1926. Photographer unknown.

Question

How many works did Spilliaert create?

Léon Spilliaert, The Entrance to the Beguinage, by the Minnewater, Bruges, (1926), watercolour, gouache and casein on paper, 80.8 x 48.2 cm. De Vuyst, Lokeren.. Spilliaert produced this scene of Bruges nearly thirty years after he spent several negligible months at the neighbouring city's academy.

Question

Did Spilliaert go to the Academy of Fine Arts?

Léon Spilliaert, Liefde (Amour) (Love), 1901, Indian ink, watercolour and gouache on paper, 32 x 19.6 cm. New York, Hearn Family Trust.

Question

Spilliaert: symbolist, expressionist, surrealist...?

The Spilliaert family, father Léonard-Hubert Spilliaert, mother Léonie Jonckheere, Léon Spilliaert, Maurice Spilliaert and Marie-Henriette Spilliaert, Ostend, ca. 1887. Photographer unknown.

Question

Did Spilliaert’s parents support his ambition to become an artist?

Léon Spilliaert, Mediterranean Garden near Grasse, 1923, watercolour and pencil on paper, 59 x 44.3 cm. De Vuyst, Lokeren.

Question

Was Spilliaert obsessed with ‘his’ Ostend?

Last updated: 17-12-2024