Spilliart, Leon

Born in Ostend in the family of a small businessman. In 1899, at the age of 18, he began to attend the Academy of Arts in Bruges , but after a few months he dropped out of school. In 1900, he visited the World Exhibition in Paris with his father, where he got acquainted with the works of contemporary symbolist artists such as Jan Torop , Giovanni Segantini , Gustav Klimt , Ferdinand Hodler and Walter Crane . From 1903 to 1904 he worked with the famous Brussels publisher Edmond Deman , where he met the famous poet Emil Verharn . In 1903, after an unsuccessful affair with the daughter of his employer, Spilliart became depressed, tried to get a job in the Belgian Congo , but was not accepted for medical reasons. In January 1904, with the help of Verharn's letter of recommendation, he entered the publishing house in Paris and worked there until November of that year.

In 1907, at the request of Deman, Spilliart completed illustrations for the book of the sculptor of masks (Le sculpteur de masques) by the poet Fernand Krommenlink . Although the illustrations were seen as creative failure, Spilliart made friends with Krommenlink. In 1908, through Verharn, he met in Vienna with Stefan Zweig .

In 1911, Leon Spilliart participated in the Independent Salon ( French Salon des Indépendants ) in Brussels . It was a major exhibition, in which, for example, Alexander Arkhipenko , Albert Glez , Robert Delaunay and Fernand Leger took part, and Guillaume Apollinaire came to represent the section of Cubism . Spilliart's work was a success with art criticism, which was a breakthrough in his career. In 1912, his works were exhibited in galleries in Paris and Brussels.

In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I , he was mobilized for civil service. On December 23, 1916, he married Raquel Fergison, and in March of the following year they moved to Brussels. On November 15, 1917, their only daughter, Madeleine, was born. Meanwhile, Spilliart fled military service to neutral Switzerland and remained there until the end of the war. He even tried through Zweig to establish contact with Lenin , but nothing came of it. In 1918 he returned to Belgium.

In the same year, in the popular Collection du Petit Artiste series published his book "Winter Joy" ( French Plaisirs d'Hiver ). In 1920, he signed his first contract with the large gallery Sélection, Atelier d'Art moderne in Brussels. The collaboration was not very successful, as the gallery clearly preferred expressionist painting (the largest representative in Belgium was Constant Permeke ). In 1922, Spilliart's first solo exhibition was held in another Brussels gallery, Centaure. After that, he spent a significant part of the time with his family in southern France. In 1927, his father died, which meant for the artist financial difficulties and the need to sell more of his work. So, he collaborated with the surrealistic magazine Variétés. In 1929, in the gallery "Galerie Georges Giroux" Brussels hosted a large personal exhibition of Spilliart. In 1932, after traveling to Italy, Austria and Switzerland, the family moved to Brussels, as the daughter of the artist began her musical education.

During World War II, Spilliart remained in Brussels occupied by the Germans, but rejected all offers to exhibit in Germany. In 1944, in Brussels, the Palais des Arts hosted his large solo exhibition. November 23, 1946 the artist died in Brussels from angina pectoris , was buried in Ostend.

Leon Spilliart was the brightest representative of symbolism in the art of Belgium, while his paintings and graphic works are also known. Spilliart's painting is dominated by dark colors or well-defined contrasts between dark and light. A certain theme is present in all his work: female figures, often grotesque; still lifes , very simple in composition and sustained in very strict colors; equally simple landscapes , often with a staircase or path of light on the water. Around 1910, he portrayed a lot of airships . He was very interested in subjects related to life and death, in particular, he repeatedly depicted a crucifix . In the last period of his work, Spilliart paid more attention to the landscape and during the war he painted almost exclusively tree trunks.

• In Ostend, a street is named after Leon Spilliart.
• In 2006, a postage stamp dedicated to the artist was issued by Belgium Post.

• Anne Adriaens-Pannier. Leon Spillaert. - Pandora (Brussel / Bruxelles), 1998 .-- S. 293. - ISBN 9053251111 .
• A. Adriaens-Pannier, F. Aellen, N. Hostyn. Léon Spilliaert: vertiges et visions. - Somogy, 2002 .-- 95 p.
• N. Hostyn. Léon Spilliaert. - Antique Collectors Club Limited, 2006. - 125 p.

• Works in museums of the world
• Spilliaert, Léon. Biographie d'artiste (Fr.) . Dictionnaire des peintres belges . Date of treatment October 17, 2016.