Théo van Rysselberghe
Encyclopedia
Théo van Rysselberghe (23 November 1862 -- 14 December 1926) was a Belgian
neo-impressionist
painter
, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the century.
to a French-speaking bourgeois family, he studied first at the Academy of Ghent under Theo Canneel and from 1879 at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
in Brussels under the directorship of Jean-François Portaels
. The North African paintings of Portaels had started an orientalist fashion in Belgium. Their impact would strongly influence the young Théo van Rysselberghe. Between 1882 and 1888 he made three trips to Morocco, staying there a total of one year and half.
Barely 18 years old, he already participated at the Salon of Ghent, showing two portraits. Soon afterwards followed his Self-portrait with pipe (1880), painted in somber colours in the Belgian realistic tradition of that time. His Child in an open spot of the forest (1880) already departs from this style and he sets his first steps towards impressionism. Yet soon he would develop his own realistic style, close to impressionism. In 1881 he exhibited for the first time at the Salon in Brussels.
and the Asturian painter Dario de Regoyos. He especially admired the 'old masters' in the Museo del Prado
. In Seville
they met Constantin Meunier
, who was copying Pedro Campaña
's Descent from the Cross. From this Spanish trip stem the following portraits : Spanish woman (1881) and Sevillan woman (1882), already completely different in style. When he set foot in Tanger at the end of October 1882, a whole new world opened up for him: so close to Europe and yet completely different. He would stay there for four months, drawing and painting the picturesque scenes on the street, the kasbah
and in the souk
: Arabian street cobbler (1882), Arabian boy (1882), Resting guard (1883)
Back in Belgium, he showed about 30 works of his trip at the "Cercle Artistique et Littéraire" in Ghent. It was an instant success, especially The kef smokers, The orange seller and a seascape The strait (setting sun), Tanger (1882).
In April 1883 he exhibited these scenes of everyday Mediterranean life at the salon L'Essor in Brussels before an enthusiast public. It was also around this time that he befriended the writer and poet Emile Verhaeren
, whom he would later portray several times.
In September 1883 van Rysselberghe went to Haarlem
to study the light in the works of Frans Hals
. The accurate rendering of light would continue to occupy his mind. There he also met the American painter William Merritt Chase
.
on 28 October 1883. This was a circle of young radical artists, under the patronage, as secretary, of the Brussels jurist and art lover Octave Maus
(1856-1919). They rebelled against the outmoded academism of that time and the prevailing artistic standards. Among the most notable members were James Ensor
, Willy Finch, Fernand Khnopff
, Félicien Rops
, and later Auguste Rodin
and Paul Signac
. This membership brought van Rysselberghe in contact with other radical artists, such as James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who had exhibited in Les XX in 1884. His influence as a portrait painter can be seen in van Rysselberghe's portrait of Octave Maus as a dandy (1885). Van Rysselberghe would paint several portraits of Octave Maus and his wife between 1883 and 1890.
. (He had met him in 1883 in Haarlem
.) In April 1884 he visited Andalucia in the company of the American painter John Singer Sargent
and the gentleman-painter Ralph Curtis. He also invited them to the exhibition in Brussels. This time, van Rysselberghe tried to surpass himself. His large, exotic painting Arabian phantasia, a theme introduced by Eugène Delacroix
, is his best known work from this period. It is bathed in the harsh light of the hot Moroccan sun. From now on van Rysselberghe would be obsessed by light. But lack of funds forced him to return to Belgium at the end of October 1884.
At the second show of Les XX in 1885 Théo van Rysselberghe showed his Arabian phantasia and other images and paintings from his second Moroccan trip, such as Abraham Sicsu (interpreter in Tanger) (1884).
).
He saw the works of the impressionists Monet and Auguste Renoir at the show of Les XX in 1886. He was deeply impressed. He experimented with this technique, as can be seen in Woman with Japanese album (1886). This impressionist influence became prominent in his paintings Madame Picard in her Loge (1886) and Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht (1886) (painted in a palette of bright colours). In 1887 he painted some impressionist seascapes at the Belgian coast : Het Zwin at high tide (1887)
Because of his growing ties with the Parisian art scene, Octave Maus sent him as a talent scout to Paris to look out for new talent for the next exhibitions of Les XX.
technique when he saw Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte
at the eighth impressionist exhibition in Paris
in 1886. This shook him up completely. Together with Henry Van de Velde
, Georges Lemmen
, Xavier Mellery
, Willy Schlobach
and Alfred William Finch
and Anna Boch
he "imported" this style to Belgium. Seurat was invited to the next salon of Les XX in Brussels in 1887. But there his La Grande Jatte was heavily criticized by the art critics as "incomprehensible gibberish applied to the noble art of painting".
Théo van Rysselberghe abandoned realism
and became an adept of pointillism. This brought him sometimes in heavy conflict with James Ensor
. In 1887 van Rysselberghe already experimented with this style, as can be seen in his Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht (1887) and Madame Edmond Picard (1887). While staying in summer 1887 a few weeks with Eugène Boch (brother of Anna Boch
) in Batignolles, near Paris, he met several painters from the Parisian scene such as Sisley, Signac, Degas and especially Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
. He appreciated especially the talent of Toulouse-Lautrec. His portrait Pierre-Marie Olin (1887) closely resembles the style of Toulouse-Lautrec of that time. He managed to invite several of them, including Signac, Forain, and Toulouse-Lautrec to the next exhibition of Les XX.
, Morocco. During these three months he made many color pencil sketches. He also drew a portrait of the sultan Hassan I. Back in Brussels, he started painting his impressions, relying on his photos, notes and sketches. His Nomad encampment (1887) is probably his first neo-impressionist
work. In the Caravan in the mountains past Schliat, the influence of Seurat is unmistakable. His Gate of Mansour-El-Hay in Meknès (1887) and Morocco (the great souk) (1887) are also painted in pointillist style, but still with short strokes and not with points. These are among the rare pointillist paintings of Morocco. When he had finished these paintings, he stopped completely with this Moroccan period in his life.
He now turned to portraiture, resulting in a series of remarkable neo-impressionist portraits.
His famous portrait of Alice Sèthe (1888) in blue and gold would become a turning point in his life. This time he used merely points in the portrait. She would later marry the sculptor Paul Dubois. Her sister, Maria Sèthe, also a model of van Rysselberghe, would marry the renowned Art Nouveau
architect Henry Van de Velde
. In that period he made many Neo-impressionistic portraits, such as the portrait of his wife Maria and their daughter Elisabeth. He had married Marie Monnom in 1889. They went on their honeymoon to the south of England and then to Brittany. This would also result in a number of Neo-impressionistic paintings. In Paris he had a meeting with Theo Van Gogh
and managed thus to invite Vincent Van Gogh
to the next exhibition in Brussels. That is where Van Gogh sold Vigne Rouge in Montmajour to Anna Boch
, the only painting he ever sold.
Apart from the portraits, he also painted in this period many landscapes and seascapes : "Dunes in Cadzand" (1893), "The rainbow" (1894).
In the 1895 he made long journeys to Athens and Constantinople, Hungary, Romania, Moscow and Saint Petersburg in order to make posters for the "Compagnie des Wagons-lits". One famous work is the poster "Royal Palace Hotel, Ostende" (1899).
In 1897, van Rysselberghe moved to Paris. Along with Paul Signac
, Maximilien Luce
, Aristide Delannoy, Alexandre Steinlen, Camille Pissarro
, Van Dongen, George Willaume, etc., he contributed to the anarchist magazine Temps Nouveaux.
In the final years of the 1890s, Théo van Rysselberghe had reached the climax of his Neo-impressionist technique. Slowly he abandoned the use of dots in his portraits and landscapes and began applying somewhat broader strokes : The hippodrome at Boulogne-sur-Mer (1900) and the group portrait Summer afternoon (1900), Young women on the beach (1901), Young girl with straw bonnet (1901), and The Reading (1903) (with the contrast between red and blue colours).
After all his years as talent scout for Octave Maus, van Rysselberghe made the mistake of his life: he didn't recognize the talent of the young Pablo Picasso
(who was in his Blue Period at that time). He found his works "ugly and uninteresting".
_-_four_bathers.jpg)
After 1903, his pointillist technique, which he had used for so many years, became more relaxed and after 1910 he abandoned it completely. His strokes had become longer and he used more often vivid colours and more intense contrasts, or softened hues. He had become a master in applying light and heat in his paintings. His Olive trees near Nice (1905) remind us of the technique used by Vincent Van Gogh
. These longer strokes in red and mauve become prominent in his Bathing ladies under the pine trees at Cavalière (1905)
After some prospecting, touring on his bike, together with his friend Henri-Edmond Cross
, of the Mediterranean coast between Hyères
and Monaco
, he found an interesting spot in Saint-Clair (where Cross already resided). His brother (and neighbour), the architect Octave van Rysselberghe, built him there a residence in 1911. He retired now to the Côte d'Azur and became more and more detached from the Brussels art scene.
Here he continued painting, mostly landscapes of the Mediterranean coast, portraits (of his wife and daughter, and of his brother Octave). In 1910 he received an order for some large decorative murals and flower compositions for the residence of the family Nocard in Neuilly
, France.
From 1905 on, the female nude becomes prominent in his monumental paintings : "After the bath" (1910). His painting The vines in October (1912) is painted in lively colours of red, green and blue. One of his last works was Girl in a bath tub (1925).
At the end of his life, he also turned to portrait sculpture, such as the Head of André Gide.
He died in Saint-Clair on 14 December 1926 and was buried in the cemetery of Lavandou, next to his friend and painter Henri-Edmond Cross
.
Much of the works of one of the greatest neo-impressionist painters still remain in private collections. They can only rarely be seen. One recent occasion was the retrospective Théo van Rysselberghe in Brussels and later in The Hague between February and September 2006. In November 2005, his work Port Cette (1892) fetched a record 2.6m € at an auction in New York
.
His brother Octave van Rysselberghe (1855-1929) was a famous Belgian architect, who collaborated with Joseph Poelaert
and Henry Van de Velde
.
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
neo-impressionist
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...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the century.
Early years
Born in GhentGhent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
to a French-speaking bourgeois family, he studied first at the Academy of Ghent under Theo Canneel and from 1879 at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
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...
in Brussels under the directorship of Jean-François Portaels
Jean-François Portaels
Jean-François Portaels was a Belgian orientalist painter and director of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.- Life :...
. The North African paintings of Portaels had started an orientalist fashion in Belgium. Their impact would strongly influence the young Théo van Rysselberghe. Between 1882 and 1888 he made three trips to Morocco, staying there a total of one year and half.
Barely 18 years old, he already participated at the Salon of Ghent, showing two portraits. Soon afterwards followed his Self-portrait with pipe (1880), painted in somber colours in the Belgian realistic tradition of that time. His Child in an open spot of the forest (1880) already departs from this style and he sets his first steps towards impressionism. Yet soon he would develop his own realistic style, close to impressionism. In 1881 he exhibited for the first time at the Salon in Brussels.
First trip to Morocco
The next year he travelled (following in the footsteps of Jean-François Portaels) extensively in Spain and Morocco together with his friend Frantz CharletFrantz Charlet
Frantz Charlet was a Belgian painter, etcher, and lithographer. An Impressionist, he was one of the founding members of the group Les XX...
and the Asturian painter Dario de Regoyos. He especially admired the 'old masters' in the Museo del Prado
Museo del Prado
The Museo del Prado is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It features one of the world's finest collections of European art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection, and unquestionably the best single collection of...
. In Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
they met Constantin Meunier
Constantin Meunier
Constantin Meunier , Belgian painter and sculptor, was born in Etterbeek, Brussels.His first exhibit was a plaster sketch, "The Garland," shown at the Brussels Salon in 1851. Soon afterwards, on the advice of the painter Charles de Groux, he abandoned the chisel for the brush...
, who was copying Pedro Campaña
Pedro Campaña
Pedro Campaña was a Flemish painter of the Renaissance period, mainly active in Italy and Spain. His actual name was Pieter de Kempeneer, translated into French as Champaigne, and was also known as Peter van de Velde....
's Descent from the Cross. From this Spanish trip stem the following portraits : Spanish woman (1881) and Sevillan woman (1882), already completely different in style. When he set foot in Tanger at the end of October 1882, a whole new world opened up for him: so close to Europe and yet completely different. He would stay there for four months, drawing and painting the picturesque scenes on the street, the kasbah
Kasbah
A kasbah or qassabah is a type of medina, Islamic city, or fortress .It was a place for the local leader to live and a defense when a city was under attack. A kasbah has high walls, usually without windows. Sometimes, they were built on hilltops so that they could be more easily defended...
and in the souk
Souk
A souq is a commercial quarter in an Arab, Berber, and increasingly European city. The term is often used to designate the market in any Arabized or Muslim city, but in modern times it appears in Western cities too...
: Arabian street cobbler (1882), Arabian boy (1882), Resting guard (1883)
Back in Belgium, he showed about 30 works of his trip at the "Cercle Artistique et Littéraire" in Ghent. It was an instant success, especially The kef smokers, The orange seller and a seascape The strait (setting sun), Tanger (1882).
In April 1883 he exhibited these scenes of everyday Mediterranean life at the salon L'Essor in Brussels before an enthusiast public. It was also around this time that he befriended the writer and poet Emile Verhaeren
Emile Verhaeren
Emile Verhaeren was a Belgian poet who wrote in the French language, and one of the chief founders of the school of Symbolism....
, whom he would later portray several times.
In September 1883 van Rysselberghe went to Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
to study the light in the works of Frans Hals
Frans Hals
Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...
. The accurate rendering of light would continue to occupy his mind. There he also met the American painter William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.- Early life and training :He was born in Williamsburg , Indiana, to the family...
.
Les XX
Théo Van Rysselberghe was one of the prominent co-founders of the Belgian artistic circle Les XXLes 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...
on 28 October 1883. This was a circle of young radical artists, under the patronage, as secretary, of the Brussels jurist and art lover Octave Maus
Octave Maus
Octave Maus was a Belgian art critic, writer, and lawyer.Maus worked with fellow writer/lawyer Edmond Picard, and they together with Victor Arnould and Eugène Robert founded the weekly L'Art moderne in 1881....
(1856-1919). They rebelled against the outmoded academism of that time and the prevailing artistic standards. Among the most notable members were 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...
, Willy Finch, Fernand Khnopff
Fernand Khnopff
Fernand Edmond Jean Marie Khnopff as a Belgian symbolist painter.- Youth and Training :...
, Félicien Rops
Félicien Rops
Félicien Rops was a Belgian artist, and printmaker in etching and aquatint.-Early life:Rops was born in Namur as the only son to Nicholas Rops and Sophie Maubile. He was educated at the University of Brussels...
, and later Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
and Paul Signac
Paul Signac
Paul Signac was a French neo-impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the pointillist style.-Biography:Paul Victor Jules Signac was born in Paris on 11 November 1863...
. This membership brought van Rysselberghe in contact with other radical artists, such as James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who had exhibited in Les XX in 1884. His influence as a portrait painter can be seen in van Rysselberghe's portrait of Octave Maus as a dandy (1885). Van Rysselberghe would paint several portraits of Octave Maus and his wife between 1883 and 1890.
Second trip to Morocco
In November 1883 he left again, together with Frantz Charlet, for Tanger. During his stay of one year, he was in constant correspondence with Octave Maus, urging him to accept several new names for the first exhibition of "Les XX": Constantin Meunier, Alfred Verwée, William Merritt ChaseWilliam Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.- Early life and training :He was born in Williamsburg , Indiana, to the family...
. (He had met him in 1883 in Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
.) In April 1884 he visited Andalucia in the company of the American painter John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
and the gentleman-painter Ralph Curtis. He also invited them to the exhibition in Brussels. This time, van Rysselberghe tried to surpass himself. His large, exotic painting Arabian phantasia, a theme introduced by Eugène Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
, is his best known work from this period. It is bathed in the harsh light of the hot Moroccan sun. From now on van Rysselberghe would be obsessed by light. But lack of funds forced him to return to Belgium at the end of October 1884.
At the second show of Les XX in 1885 Théo van Rysselberghe showed his Arabian phantasia and other images and paintings from his second Moroccan trip, such as Abraham Sicsu (interpreter in Tanger) (1884).
Impressionism
Yet his next portraits are in rather subdued colours, using different black or purple gradations contrasting with light colours: Jeanne and Marguerite Schlobach (1884), Octave Maus (1885), Camille Van Mons (1886), Marguerite Van Mons (1886) (to be compared with Portrait of Gabrielle Braun (1886) by Fernand KhnopffFernand Khnopff
Fernand Edmond Jean Marie Khnopff as a Belgian symbolist painter.- Youth and Training :...
).
He saw the works of the impressionists Monet and Auguste Renoir at the show of Les XX in 1886. He was deeply impressed. He experimented with this technique, as can be seen in Woman with Japanese album (1886). This impressionist influence became prominent in his paintings Madame Picard in her Loge (1886) and Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht (1886) (painted in a palette of bright colours). In 1887 he painted some impressionist seascapes at the Belgian coast : Het Zwin at high tide (1887)
Because of his growing ties with the Parisian art scene, Octave Maus sent him as a talent scout to Paris to look out for new talent for the next exhibitions of Les XX.
Neo-impressionism
He discovered the pointillistPointillism
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...
technique when he saw Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - 1884 is one of Georges Seurat's most famous works, and is an example of pointillism.-Overview:...
at the eighth impressionist exhibition in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1886. This shook him up completely. Together with Henry Van de Velde
Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium...
, Georges Lemmen
Georges Lemmen
Georges Lemmen was a Belgian neo-impressionist painter. He was a member of Les XX from 1888. His works include The Beach at Heist, Aline Marechal and Vase of Flowers...
, Xavier Mellery
Xavier Mellery
Xavier Mellery was a Belgian Symbolist painter.The son of a gardener at the Royal Palace of Laeken, Mellery initially worked with the painter-decorator Charles Albert. He attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels from 1860 to 1867, one of his professors being Jean-François Portaels...
, Willy Schlobach
Willy Schlobach
Willy Schlobach was a German-Belgian painter. In 1884, he was one of the founders of Les XX, a group of artists known for their hazy atmospheric paintings...
and Alfred William Finch
Alfred William Finch
Alfred William Finch was a ceramist and painter in the pointillist and Neo-Impressionist style.-Life and work:Alfred William Finch was born in Brussels, Belgium to English parents and lived his later life in Finland....
and Anna Boch
Anna Boch
Anna Rosalie Boch was a Belgian painter, born in Saint-Vaast, Hainaut. Anna Boch died in Ixelles in 1936 and is interred there in the Ixelles Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium.-Artistic style:...
he "imported" this style to Belgium. Seurat was invited to the next salon of Les XX in Brussels in 1887. But there his La Grande Jatte was heavily criticized by the art critics as "incomprehensible gibberish applied to the noble art of painting".
Théo van Rysselberghe abandoned realism
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
and became an adept of pointillism. This brought him sometimes in heavy conflict with 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...
. In 1887 van Rysselberghe already experimented with this style, as can be seen in his Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht (1887) and Madame Edmond Picard (1887). While staying in summer 1887 a few weeks with Eugène Boch (brother of Anna Boch
Anna Boch
Anna Rosalie Boch was a Belgian painter, born in Saint-Vaast, Hainaut. Anna Boch died in Ixelles in 1936 and is interred there in the Ixelles Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium.-Artistic style:...
) in Batignolles, near Paris, he met several painters from the Parisian scene such as Sisley, Signac, Degas and especially Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...
. He appreciated especially the talent of Toulouse-Lautrec. His portrait Pierre-Marie Olin (1887) closely resembles the style of Toulouse-Lautrec of that time. He managed to invite several of them, including Signac, Forain, and Toulouse-Lautrec to the next exhibition of Les XX.
Third trip to Morocco
In December 1887 he was invited, together with Edmond Picard, to accompany a Belgian economic delegation to MeknèsMeknes
Meknes is a city in northern Morocco, located from the capital Rabat and from Fes. It is served by the A2 expressway between those two cities and by the corresponding railway. Meknes was the capital of Morocco under the reign of Moulay Ismail , before it was relocated to Marrakech. The...
, Morocco. During these three months he made many color pencil sketches. He also drew a portrait of the sultan Hassan I. Back in Brussels, he started painting his impressions, relying on his photos, notes and sketches. His Nomad encampment (1887) is probably his first neo-impressionist
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...
work. In the Caravan in the mountains past Schliat, the influence of Seurat is unmistakable. His Gate of Mansour-El-Hay in Meknès (1887) and Morocco (the great souk) (1887) are also painted in pointillist style, but still with short strokes and not with points. These are among the rare pointillist paintings of Morocco. When he had finished these paintings, he stopped completely with this Moroccan period in his life.
He now turned to portraiture, resulting in a series of remarkable neo-impressionist portraits.
Pointillism
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
architect Henry Van de Velde
Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium...
. In that period he made many Neo-impressionistic portraits, such as the portrait of his wife Maria and their daughter Elisabeth. He had married Marie Monnom in 1889. They went on their honeymoon to the south of England and then to Brittany. This would also result in a number of Neo-impressionistic paintings. In Paris he had a meeting with Theo Van Gogh
Theo van Gogh (art dealer)
Theodorus "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer. He was the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh, and Theo's unfailing financial and emotional support allowed his brother to devote himself entirely to painting...
and managed thus to invite Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
to the next exhibition in Brussels. That is where Van Gogh sold Vigne Rouge in Montmajour to Anna Boch
Anna Boch
Anna Rosalie Boch was a Belgian painter, born in Saint-Vaast, Hainaut. Anna Boch died in Ixelles in 1936 and is interred there in the Ixelles Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium.-Artistic style:...
, the only painting he ever sold.
Apart from the portraits, he also painted in this period many landscapes and seascapes : "Dunes in Cadzand" (1893), "The rainbow" (1894).
In the 1895 he made long journeys to Athens and Constantinople, Hungary, Romania, Moscow and Saint Petersburg in order to make posters for the "Compagnie des Wagons-lits". One famous work is the poster "Royal Palace Hotel, Ostende" (1899).
In 1897, van Rysselberghe moved to Paris. Along with Paul Signac
Paul Signac
Paul Signac was a French neo-impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the pointillist style.-Biography:Paul Victor Jules Signac was born in Paris on 11 November 1863...
, Maximilien Luce
Maximilien Luce
Maximilien Luce was a French Neo-impressionist artist. A printmaker, painter, and anarchist, Luce is best known for his pointillist canvases. He grew up in the working class Montparnasse, and became a painter of landscapes and urban scenes which frequently emphasize the activities of people at work...
, Aristide Delannoy, Alexandre Steinlen, Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas . His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as he was the only artist to exhibit in both forms...
, Van Dongen, George Willaume, etc., he contributed to the anarchist magazine Temps Nouveaux.
In the final years of the 1890s, Théo van Rysselberghe had reached the climax of his Neo-impressionist technique. Slowly he abandoned the use of dots in his portraits and landscapes and began applying somewhat broader strokes : The hippodrome at Boulogne-sur-Mer (1900) and the group portrait Summer afternoon (1900), Young women on the beach (1901), Young girl with straw bonnet (1901), and The Reading (1903) (with the contrast between red and blue colours).
After all his years as talent scout for Octave Maus, van Rysselberghe made the mistake of his life: he didn't recognize the talent of the young Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
(who was in his Blue Period at that time). He found his works "ugly and uninteresting".
Later years
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
. These longer strokes in red and mauve become prominent in his Bathing ladies under the pine trees at Cavalière (1905)
After some prospecting, touring on his bike, together with his friend Henri-Edmond Cross
Henri-Edmond Cross
Henri-Edmond Cross was a French pointillist painter.- Life and career :Cross was born in Douai and grew up in Lille. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. His early works, portraits and still lifes, were in the dark colors of realism, but after meeting with Claude Monet in 1883, he painted in...
, of the Mediterranean coast between Hyères
Hyères
Hyères , Provençal Occitan: Ieras in classical norm or Iero in Mistralian norm) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France....
and Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
, he found an interesting spot in Saint-Clair (where Cross already resided). His brother (and neighbour), the architect Octave van Rysselberghe, built him there a residence in 1911. He retired now to the Côte d'Azur and became more and more detached from the Brussels art scene.
Here he continued painting, mostly landscapes of the Mediterranean coast, portraits (of his wife and daughter, and of his brother Octave). In 1910 he received an order for some large decorative murals and flower compositions for the residence of the family Nocard in Neuilly
Neuilly
Neuilly is a common place name in France, deriving from the male given name Nobilis or Novellius:...
, France.
From 1905 on, the female nude becomes prominent in his monumental paintings : "After the bath" (1910). His painting The vines in October (1912) is painted in lively colours of red, green and blue. One of his last works was Girl in a bath tub (1925).
At the end of his life, he also turned to portrait sculpture, such as the Head of André Gide.
He died in Saint-Clair on 14 December 1926 and was buried in the cemetery of Lavandou, next to his friend and painter Henri-Edmond Cross
Henri-Edmond Cross
Henri-Edmond Cross was a French pointillist painter.- Life and career :Cross was born in Douai and grew up in Lille. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. His early works, portraits and still lifes, were in the dark colors of realism, but after meeting with Claude Monet in 1883, he painted in...
.
Much of the works of one of the greatest neo-impressionist painters still remain in private collections. They can only rarely be seen. One recent occasion was the retrospective Théo van Rysselberghe in Brussels and later in The Hague between February and September 2006. In November 2005, his work Port Cette (1892) fetched a record 2.6m € at an auction in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
His brother Octave van Rysselberghe (1855-1929) was a famous Belgian architect, who collaborated with Joseph Poelaert
Joseph Poelaert
Joseph Poelaert was a Belgian architect.- Life :Born in Brussels to Philip Poelaert , a former architecture student at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Poelaert also trained there under Tilman-François Suys, and then in Paris under Louis Visconti and Jean-Nicolas Huyot.Poelaert...
and Henry Van de Velde
Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium...
.