Leon Spilliaert

Watercolor on paper, signed and dated 1926 56 x 42 cm.

Spilliaert was born in Ostend (a fine town at the North Sea) Belgium, the oldest of seven children of Léonard-Hubert Spilliaert. When he was just a child he displayed an interest in art and drawing. Later on he was predominantly a self taught artist. Sickly and reclusive, he spent most of his youth sketching scenes of ordinary life and the Belgian countryside. In Spilliaert's paintings we can discover some melancholy and silence.
Spilliaert the symbolist was indifferent to the usual pictorial subjects, preferring to withdraw into a spiritual visual language of his own. The secret, unreal atmosphere is part of a world of inner experience. His later work shows a concentration on seascapes. He died on November 23, 1946 in Brussels.

Another fine watercolor image of the master on Artnet: The Curve of the Esplanade 1908.





























photo: m.w.