Collection Madame Pierre Stoop, Anvers

Collection François Stoop, Kapellen (1998-2004)

Galerie OFFA (Olivier Fayt Fine Art), Knokke (2011)

Acquis auprès de cette dernière par l'actuel propriétaire le 31 janvier 2011

Collection Louis Grandchamp des Raux

Bruxelles, BRAFA, Galerie OFFA, Olivier Fayt Fine Art, Knokke, janvier 2011 (selon une étiquette au dos)

Ostende, Venetiaanse Gaanderijen, Zeedrijk , Bonjour Ostende, juin-septembre 2013, p.203, reproduit en couleur p.9 (selon une étiquette au dos)

E. De Kuyper, Aan zee. Taferelen uit de kinderjaren, Uitgeverij Vantilt, Nijmegen, 2015, reproduit en couleur en couverture

Cette œuvre sera incluse au catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre de Léon Spilliaert actuellement en préparation par Madame Anne Adriaens-Pannier

“You are the most mysterious, the most secretive, the most extraordinary”. The uniqueness of Léon Spilliaert’s thinking, highlighted here by the painter Mayou Iserentant, is linked to his free-spirited personality and disconcerting art. The artist, like James Ensor a native of Ostend, followed a solitary path, free from convention.

Prone to introspection, he found inspiration in the literature and philosophy of his time

and infused his work with the melancholic thoughts that overwhelmed and tormented

him. Constantly plagued by uncertainty, he pursued an endless quest for his own artistic identity. In the years 1902-1903, the young artist worked for the publisher and bookseller Edmond Deman, who introduced him to Brussels’ cultural circles and entrusted him with illustrating works by Maurice Maeterlinck and Émile Verhaeren. Spilliaert’s early works follow in the tradition of fin-de siècle European Symbolism, exploring themes of melancholy, solitude and the immensity of nature. Women as a subject are also at the heart of his work, appearing here in association with the power of the elements (ill. 1). The female figure is rooted in the sand, her back to the sea and the wind, which is forcing her to hold on to her hat.

Here Spilliaert links his vision of femininity to the constant presence of the

wind: he frequently depicted women whose clothes, hair and silhouettes are animated by the sea breeze; billowing, moving with intensity. This aesthetic of suspension pervades this work; the young girl (or woman?), her gaze turned towards the dark

water, faces the elements as she is plagued by fierce winds (ill. 2).

In 1908-1909, Spilliaert rented a studio for a few months in Ostend on the Quai des Pêcheurs to be as close as possible to the sea and the daily life of the port. His

paintings of women by water’s edge is perhaps intended to evoke a sense of anticipation and hope after the boat has left the harbour.

The subject of a woman in a large hat standing alone facing the sea appears several times during this period, as in his Femme au bord de l’eau, painted in 1910 (ill. 3).

Fig. 1 : Léon Spilliaert, Femme au bord de la digue, 1907, Crayon, aquarelle, gouache, crayon, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique

Fig. 2 : Léon Spilliaert, Femme au chapeau vue de dos, circa 1910

Fig. 3 : Léon Spilliaert, Femme au bord de l’eau, 1910, encre de Chine, crayon de couleur et pastel sur papier, Collection particulière