The house on Kapellestraat, or at least the interior, is the one Spilliaert reproduced most often. Many still lifes, interiors and self-portraits from before 1916 offer us a glimpse of the bourgeois interior: with its tall mirrors, panelling, sloping glass roof, houseplants, a mantelpiece with a clock under a glass dome and Thonet chairs, which he sometimes used as an improvised easel. He also brought his bedroom with its metal bed and sturdy wardrobes to life in his work.
In Léon Spilliaert’s childhood home, the main focus was his father Léonard’s perfumery business. Known as Grande parfumerie Spilliaert-Jonckheere, it also included the family name of Spilliaert’s mother.1 The business, founded in 1874, sold perfume such as Brise d'Ostende, Fleurs des Flandres, Lipster and Brise Marine. The dark bottles of light-sensitive fragrances and packaging boxes crop up in Spilliaert’s work. At the age of seventeen, he captured his father’s laboratory in a picturesque drawing. The perfumery was located in the commercial centre of Ostend, right opposite the Dispersyn jewellery store and close to the Libert and Van Mullen patisseries.2 Artists Emile Spilliaert and Theodore Kockerols also lived nearby, across the street at number 4.3
The perfumery continued to be successful after Spilliaert’s marriage and his move to Brussels. In the 1920s, his father won several awards for his window displays. Newspaper advertisements - clearly targeting a female audience - highlight the ‘original, attractive packaging and interesting prices’.4 After his father’s death, Léon Spilliaert had a share of the rental income from the house. Sadly, on the night of 27-28 May 1940, the house was destroyed by bombs, which also hit the nearby Town Hall, destroying works of art by Spilliaert, Ensor, Khnopff and others.
