Life and light
The Belgian response to Impressionism was a complex and local one. The Belgian Impressionists are often called Luminists, and the founder of Luminism was Émile Claus (1849-1924). His work combines elements of Impressionism, Symbolism, and Intimisme. Born in Sint-Eloois-Vijve, Émile Claus studied at the Antwerp Academy and then headed for Paris, where he became a close friend of Henri Le Sidaner. Under the influence of Le Sidaner and of Claude Monet, Claus shrugged off the brown tones of his early work for a style filled with light, giving rise to the term Luminism being used for the Belgian Impressionists as for the American ones. Claus repaid some of t

Fractured perspectives
The first person to incorporate elements of Cubism in book illustration was probably Jean-Émile Laboureur, but others, especially in the Jazz Age, saw value in the fractured perspectives of Cubism, and also in its elements of repetition and modernity. One of these was Chas Laborde (1886-1941), who was born in Buenos Aires to French parents. One of the most brilliant illustrators of the 1920s and 30s, Laborde had been gassed in the trenches in WWI. According to his friend, the author Pierre Mac Orlan, Chas Laborde died of grief on seeing the conquering German Army march past on the Place d'Étoile in 1941. Laborde and Mac Orlan were two mor

Intense and diverse
Today is the opening of an exciting new exhibition in the Cultural Centre (Cultuurcentrum) of Hasselt in Belgium. Entitled Helikon: intens en divers, it celebrates the work of the pioneering Helikon gallery, which brought contemporary and avant-garde art to Hasselt through the 1960s. It will run until Sunday 10 January 2010.The main members of the Helikon group were Pierre Cox, Paule Nolens, Lucienne Porta, Ray Remans, Amand van Rompay, Robert Vandereycken, and Walter Vilain. Although I have recently acquired work by many Belgian artists of the 1970s, in a nearly complete run of the graphics portfolios De Bladen voor de Grafiek, unfortunately I don’t have any w

Art Deco high-jinks
Another member of the circle of artists that clustered around the neighbouring ateliers of Jean-Gabriel Daragnès and Roger Lacourière in the 1920s was Charles Martin (1884-1934). Martin was born in Montpellier, where he began his art studies before going to Paris to study at the Académie Julian and at the École des Beaux-Arts.Charles Martin, Woman putting on her stockingsP

The art of taille-douce
Following my previous post on Terry Haass and her close collaboration with the master taille-douciers at l’atelier Lacourière-Frélaut, I was delighted to hear from Antoine Rubington, the son of Norman Rubington, with further information on his father’s etchings. Antoine (himself a printmaker) tells me that all of Norman Rubington’s etchings were also made at Lacourière et Frélaut, and that this explains the technical mastery displayed. In a print studio such as Lacourière’s, the artist had the help of highly skilled and experienced artisans in all aspects of preparing the plates, biting them in acid, inking, and so on. The fact that there are usually only a few artist’s proof