Eliane de Meuse
Encyclopedia
Eliane, Georgette, Diane de Meuse (9 August 1899 – 3 February 1993) was a Belgian painter. She was the wife of Max Constant Armand Van Dyck. They attended together the courses of the same professors at L'Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
, Brussels.
She also trained in the studio of the genre painter Guillaume van Strydonck, member of Les XX
and James Ensor
's friend. At the same time, she received advices from the sculptor Marcel Rau, Prix de Rome
– 1908.
In 1916, Meuse decided to become a painter and joined L'Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. She there met the young painter Max Van Dyck, (23 December 1902, (Brussels – Schaerbeek) – 26 December 1992, (Brussels – Ixelles) and married him in 1922. The latter had won the great Prix de Rome (Belgium) in 1920 when he was only 17 years old, a sensational event widely commented in the Belgian press. He taught later the Decorative arts at the Académie des beaux-arts d'Anderlecht of which he eventually became the director.
At the Academy (ARBA, Brussels) Meuse was the student of the Symbolist painter Jean Delville
and the portraitist Herman Richir.
From all these influences, her art developed into a style similar to Post-Impressionism
, her subject matter including portraits, figures, marines, landscapes and still lifes. In some of her latest paintings underlying abstract structure can be observed.
Critics sensed that Eliane de Meuse had much inherited from the Belgian Luminism
, movement born in the very early 20th century, which combined aspects of Realism
(Realist visual arts), Impressionism
and Neo-Impressionism
. It got its name from the style of Emile Claus
and of a few other painters, grouped in a circle called Vie et Lumière (Life and light) from which Claus was one of the main founders.
Charles Bernard, the foremost Belgian critic at that time wrote he considered the art of Eliane de Meuse as aimed towards a pure, clear artistic ideal, without any selfish motives. He very rightly felt that the artist did not belong to the Impressionism of Emile Claus, so close to French Pointillism
, but that she was the spiritual daughter of James Ensor.
In an article published on 22 October 1936 in the Nation belge, he commented Meuse's first exhibition in these words: A discovery... an artist that reinvents James Ensor and Rik Wouter's impressionism, that enriches impressionism with new elements, in terms of richness and interpretation indicating the presence of a personality...
This exhibition took place in the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels
), where a collection of paintings representing the outcome of fourteen years of dedication in the pursuit of personal expression was presented.
The same year, in Le Courrier d’Anvers, Sander Pierron, another influential critic, wrote he believed this young artist was called to a great destiny. He described Eliane de Meuse as a born colourist with a prodigious talent: Since Rik Wouters
such talent had not been observed... she is a colourist able to seize the tiniest variations of light and uses them with harmony as a musician should do with notes, displaying a personal feeling.
K. de Bergen also noted the interesting way to use the colour in her works and added that she demonstrates that: the colour possesses its own truth.
Another critic signing his article by L. J. estimated that we must place Eliane de Meuse amongst the most sensitive painters like Edouard Manet
or Marcel Jefferys.
In his monograph dedicated to Eliane de Meuse Paul Caso wrote that: Every type of art work has been tackled, with a natural inclination for still lifes (frequently with wonderful flowers from her garden), the true nub of her work, often studied as a pile of objects, masks, flowers, draperies, many times assembled around the same chair of her studio, a chair which acquires a real personality, in an apparent disorder of forms and colours.
In 1921, she won the Prix Godecharle created in 1881 by Napoleon Godecharle, the son of Gilles-Lambert Godecharle
. This prize gave her the opportunity to travel in Italy, the shock of a whole civilization, the ceaseless return to Renaissance sources.
Cercle artistique d'Anvers – 1936 (Belgium)
Galerie Rencontre – 94 Louise Avenue, Brussels – 1981 (Belgium)
Kelterhaus-Muffendorf – Bonn (Bad-Godesberg) – 1982 (Germany)
Rétrospective organized by the City of Brussels and by the Crédit Général, a Belgian bank located, Grand Place nr 5 at Brussels – 1991 (Belgium)
in Paris with representatives of the Impressionism Berthe Morisot
, Mary Cassatt
, Marie Laurencin
and Marie Bashkirtseff
1937 l'Art belge, at The Carnegie Institute (Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
in United States
) with other Belgian painters: Anto-Carte, Constant Permeke
, Gustave De Smet
, Isidore Opsomer and René Magritte
1937 and 1938 Exposition du Progrès social, at the Galerie du Palais de la Mairie de Lille (France) – 1939
Le Fauvisme brabançon organized at the Cercle artistique communal de Waterloo (Les Ecuries) not far from Brussels (Belgium) from September, 14 to 27 October 1996, with Rik Wouters, Jos Albert, Charles Dehoy, Philibert Cockx, Jean Brusselmans, Ramah, Ferdinand Schirren etc.
Les Dahlias blancs, oil on canvas, former private collection of the Queen of the Belgians, Elisabeth of Bavaria
Still life with red shoes, 1944, oil on canvas (71,5 x 80 cm), collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent
(MSK), Belgium, in the Eliane de Meuse monograph of Paul Caso edited by Editions Prefilm, Brussels, 1991, page 26 L'enfant, oil on canvas (60 x 47 cm), collection of Musée des Beaux-Arts Tournai
, Belgium,in the Eliane de Meuse monograph of Paul Caso edited by Editions Prefilm, Brussels, 1991, page 21 Marianne, oil on canvas (82 x 60 cm), collection of Musée des Beaux-Arts Tournai, Belgium, in the Eliane de Meuse monograph of Paul Caso edited by Editions Prefilm, Brussels, 1991, page 56
Bouquet, oil on canvas sticked on panel (60 x 50 cm), collection of Musée des Beaux-Arts Tournai, Belgium
Nu à contre-jour, circa 1920, oil on canvas (99,5 x 80 cm), private Belgian collection, in Paul Piron's dictionary, volume 3, page 234
Rêverie, 1932, oil on canvas (80 x 70 cm), private Belgian collection, reproduced in the catalogue of The Concours Godecharle created by Gilles-Lambert Godecharle and in the Eliane de Meuse monograph of Paul Caso edited by Editions Prefilm, Brussels, 1991, page 52
Centaurées, oil on canvas, (80 x 70 cm), entered in January 1992 into the CBC Banque's collection (former Crédit Général). This painting mentionned in the catalogue of the works exhibited in the Brussels Gallery of the Crédit Général under reference nr 23, was offered by the artist to the bank for their free sponsoring.
... and in the Belgian State collections Interieur, oil on canvas (61,5 x 60,5 cm), in the Eliane de Meuse monograph of Paul Caso edited by Editions Prefilm, Brussels, 1991, page 71.
(fr) Mabille. M et Geirlandt Karel. J., Un demi-siècle d'expositions Palais des Beaux-Arts Bruxelles, edited by a.s.b.l. La Société des expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1981 - Dépot légal D/1981/2256/10 (Belgium)
(fr) Zeebroek-Hollemans, Adriaens-Pannier, A. Le dictionnaire des peintres belges du XIV siècle à nos jours; depuis les premiers maîtres des anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux et de la principauté de Liège, jusqu'aux artistes contemporains, 2 volumes, La Renaissance du Livre, department of De Boeck-Wesmael, Brussels - 1995 (Eliane de Meuse notice, volume 1, p. 325) (Belgium)
(fr) dictionnaire critique et documentaires des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays en 14 volumes Benezit Dictionary of Artists
, Editions Gründ, Paris - 1999 Eliane de Meuse notice, volume 9, p. 554) (France)
(fr) dictionnaire des artistes plasticiens de Belgique des XIXe et XXe siècles, Paul Piron, Editions Art in Belgium, Lasne, - 2006 - ISBN 2-930338-53-9 (Belgium)
Palais royal archives - Dr. Gustaaf Janssens (Chief archivist) - Ducale Street nr 2 - 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
The Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels is an art school, founded in 1711.The faculty and alumni of ARBA include some of the most famous names in Belgian painting, sculpture, and architecture: James Ensor, Rene Magritte, and Paul Delvaux...
, Brussels.
Biography
Eliane de Meuse took her first drawing lessons at the age of fourteen with Ketty Hoppe, the wife of the Belgian painter Victor Gilsoul.She also trained in the studio of the genre painter Guillaume van Strydonck, member of Les XX
Les XX
Les XX was a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, formed in 1883 by the Brussels lawyer, publisher, and entrepreneur Octave Maus. For ten years 'Les Vingt' , as they called themselves, held an annual exhibition of their art; each year twenty international artists were also...
and James Ensor
James Ensor
James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor was a Flemish-Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for almost his entire life...
's friend. At the same time, she received advices from the sculptor Marcel Rau, Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome (Belgium)
The Belgian Prix de Rome is an award for young artists, created in 1832, following the example of the original French Prix de Rome. The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp organised the prize until 1920, when the national government took over. The first prize is also sometimes called the Grand Prix...
– 1908.
In 1916, Meuse decided to become a painter and joined L'Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. She there met the young painter Max Van Dyck, (23 December 1902, (Brussels – Schaerbeek) – 26 December 1992, (Brussels – Ixelles) and married him in 1922. The latter had won the great Prix de Rome (Belgium) in 1920 when he was only 17 years old, a sensational event widely commented in the Belgian press. He taught later the Decorative arts at the Académie des beaux-arts d'Anderlecht of which he eventually became the director.
At the Academy (ARBA, Brussels) Meuse was the student of the Symbolist painter Jean Delville
Jean Delville
Jean Delville was a Belgian symbolist painter, writer, and occultist. In 1896, he founded the Salon d’Art Idealiste, which is considered the Belgian equivalent to the Parisian Rose & Cross Salon and the Pre-Raphaelite movement in London.-Quotes:-Delville's background:During the last decades of...
and the portraitist Herman Richir.
From all these influences, her art developed into a style similar to Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and Post-Impressionism...
, her subject matter including portraits, figures, marines, landscapes and still lifes. In some of her latest paintings underlying abstract structure can be observed.
Critics sensed that Eliane de Meuse had much inherited from the Belgian Luminism
Luminism (Impressionism)
Luminism is a late-impressionist or neo-impressionist style in painting which devotes great attention to light effects.The term has been used for the style of the Belgian painters such as Emile Claus and Théo van Rysselberghe and their followers , as well as for...
, movement born in the very early 20th century, which combined aspects of Realism
Realism (visual arts)
Realism in the visual arts is a style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see. The term is used in different senses in art history; it may mean the same as illusionism, the representation of subjects with visual mimesis or verisimilitude, or may mean an emphasis on the actuality of...
(Realist visual arts), Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
and Neo-Impressionism
Neo-impressionism
Neo-impressionism was coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat. Seurat’s greatest masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, marked the beginning of this movement when it first made its appearance at an exhibition...
. It got its name from the style of Emile Claus
Emile Claus
Emile Claus was a Belgian painter.- Life :Emile Claus was born on 27 September 1849, in Sint-Eloois-Vijve, a village in West-Flanders , at the banks of the river Lys. Emile was the twelfth child in a family of thirteen. Father Alexander was a grocer-publican and for some time town councillor...
and of a few other painters, grouped in a circle called Vie et Lumière (Life and light) from which Claus was one of the main founders.
Charles Bernard, the foremost Belgian critic at that time wrote he considered the art of Eliane de Meuse as aimed towards a pure, clear artistic ideal, without any selfish motives. He very rightly felt that the artist did not belong to the Impressionism of Emile Claus, so close to French Pointillism
Pointillism
Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works...
, but that she was the spiritual daughter of James Ensor.
In an article published on 22 October 1936 in the Nation belge, he commented Meuse's first exhibition in these words: A discovery... an artist that reinvents James Ensor and Rik Wouter's impressionism, that enriches impressionism with new elements, in terms of richness and interpretation indicating the presence of a personality...
This exhibition took place in the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels
Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels
The Paleis voor Schone Kunsten or Palais des Beaux-Arts is cultural venue in Brussels, Belgium. Often referred to as "Bozar" or "PSK", construction was completed in 1928 and includes exhibition and conference rooms, movie theater and concert hall which serves as home to the National Orchestra of...
), where a collection of paintings representing the outcome of fourteen years of dedication in the pursuit of personal expression was presented.
The same year, in Le Courrier d’Anvers, Sander Pierron, another influential critic, wrote he believed this young artist was called to a great destiny. He described Eliane de Meuse as a born colourist with a prodigious talent: Since Rik Wouters
Rik Wouters
Hendrik Emil Wouters was a Belgian fauvist painter and sculptor. Wouters was educated at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.-External links:...
such talent had not been observed... she is a colourist able to seize the tiniest variations of light and uses them with harmony as a musician should do with notes, displaying a personal feeling.
K. de Bergen also noted the interesting way to use the colour in her works and added that she demonstrates that: the colour possesses its own truth.
Another critic signing his article by L. J. estimated that we must place Eliane de Meuse amongst the most sensitive painters like Edouard Manet
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
or Marcel Jefferys.
In his monograph dedicated to Eliane de Meuse Paul Caso wrote that: Every type of art work has been tackled, with a natural inclination for still lifes (frequently with wonderful flowers from her garden), the true nub of her work, often studied as a pile of objects, masks, flowers, draperies, many times assembled around the same chair of her studio, a chair which acquires a real personality, in an apparent disorder of forms and colours.
In 1921, she won the Prix Godecharle created in 1881 by Napoleon Godecharle, the son of Gilles-Lambert Godecharle
Gilles-Lambert Godecharle
Gilles-Lambert Godecharle was a Belgian sculptor, a pupil of Laurent Delvaux, "the only sculptor of international repute in Delvaux's retinue", who became one of two outstanding representatives of Neoclassicism in the Austrian Netherlands.In response to his early promise, empress Maria Theresa...
. This prize gave her the opportunity to travel in Italy, the shock of a whole civilization, the ceaseless return to Renaissance sources.
Main individual exhibitions
International group exhibitions
Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume
The Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume is a museum of contemporary art in the north-west corner of the Tuileries Gardens in Paris.The building was constructed in 1861 during the reign of Napoleon III...
in Paris with representatives of the Impressionism Berthe Morisot
Berthe Morisot
Berthe Morisot was a painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. She was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt.In 1864, she exhibited for the first...
, Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
, Marie Laurencin
Marie Laurencin
Marie Laurencin was a French painter and printmaker. -Biography:Laurencin was born in Paris, where she was raised by her mother and lived much of her life. At 18, she studied porcelain painting in Sèvres...
and Marie Bashkirtseff
Marie Bashkirtseff
Marie Bashkirtseff was a Ukrainian-born diarist, painter and sculptor....
1937
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh are four museums that are operated by the Carnegie Institute headquartered in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
in United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) with other Belgian painters: Anto-Carte, Constant Permeke
Constant Permeke
Constant Permeke was a Belgian painter and sculptor who is considered the leading figure of Flemish expressionism.Permeke was born in Antwerp but when he was six years old the family moved to Ostend, where his father became curator of the Municipal Museum of Arts. Permeke went to school in Bruges...
, Gustave De Smet
Gustave De Smet
Gustave De Smet was a Belgian expressionist painter.Having first adopted the "luminist" style of Emile Claus, he came under the influence of expressionism and cubism during World War I....
, Isidore Opsomer and René Magritte
René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
1937 and 1938
Some of her paintings
Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent
The Museum of Fine Arts ) in Ghent, Belgium, is situated at the East side of the Citadelpark .The museum holds a large permanent collection of art from the Middle Ages until mid 20th Century. The collection focuses on Flemish Art but also has several European- especially French- paintings...
(MSK), Belgium, in the Eliane de Meuse monograph of Paul Caso edited by Editions Prefilm, Brussels, 1991, page 26
Musée des Beaux-Arts Tournai
The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tournai, Belgium, is an art museum.The inception of the museum was in the beginning of the 20th century when Henri Van Cutsem, a Belgian art collector, offered his collection to the city of Tournai in 1905...
, Belgium,in the Eliane de Meuse monograph of Paul Caso edited by Editions Prefilm, Brussels, 1991, page 21
Documentary broadcasted on television
Personnalité à domicile : Éliane de Meuse interviewed by Éric Russon, Télé-Bruxelles, 1991Further reading
- (fr) Caso Paul,
Benezit Dictionary of Artists
The Benezit Dictionary of Artists is an extensive publication of bibliographical information on painters, sculptors, designers and engravers created primarily for art museums, auction houses, historians and dealers...
, Editions Gründ, Paris - 1999 Eliane de Meuse notice, volume 9, p. 554) (France)
External links
- Winners list of the Concours Godecharle since its creation
- Official website of Museum of Fine Arts of Tournai (Belgium) http://www.tournai.be/fr/officiel/index.php?page=42
- Official website of Museum of Fine Arts of Gand (Belgium) http://www.mskgent.be/
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium' s library http://bib.fine-arts-museum.be/webopac/List.csp?SearchT1=eliane+de+meuse&Index1=Index1&Database=2&BoolOp2=AND&SearchT2=&Index2=Index1&BoolOp3=AND&SearchT3=&Index3=Index1&Year1=&Year2=&OpacLanguage=fre&NumberToRetrieve=50&SearchMethod=Find_3&SearchTerm1=eliane+de+meuse&SearchTerm2=&SearchTerm3=&Profile=Default&PreviousList=Start&PageType=Start&EncodedRequest=*99*BD*E1*3FO*16biHN*E1*CCT*CFV*86&WebPageNr=1&WebAction=NewSearch&StartValue=1&RowRepeat=2&MyChannelCount=]
- Still life with red shoes at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
- Marianne at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
- Eliane de Meuse notice in le Dictionnaire des artistes plasticiens de Belgique des XIX et XXe, Paul Piron
- Notice in Le Dictionnaire des peintres belges du XIVe siècle à nos jours depuis les premiers maîtres des anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux et de la principauté de Liège jusqu'aux artistes contemporains in two volumes, La Renaissance du Livre, département de De Boeck-Wesmael, Bruxelles, 1995 http://balat.kikirpa.be/Detail_notice.php?id=1654
- Carnegie Institute Pittsburgh http://www.cmoa.org/international/the_exhibition/history1920.asp
- Archives du Palais Royal du Royaume de Belgique http://www.aacfwb.lacambre-archi.be/sommaire.php3?param=218&fctg=L&fct=G
- Franz Hens (1856–1928) http://artmarines.blogspot.com/2010/12/frans-hens-1856-1928.html et :nl:Frans Hens
- Charles Bernard (1875–1961) http://www.arllfb.be/composition/membres/bernard.html