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Lot Essay
At first forbidden by his father to become a painter, Emile Claus started his career as a baker's apprentice, a railworks inspector and a linen merchant before he was allowed to go to Antwerp in 1869. There he took lessons at the Academy from Nicaise de Keyser and Jacob Jacobs which he subsequently abandoned in the mid-1870s when he began to study solely from nature.
Between 1889-92 Claus spent several winters in Paris (where he exhibited annually at the Salon until 1914) during which time he slowly abandoned his academic naturalism and started focussing on the play of light while increasingly embracing plein air painting.
The poet and critic Emile Verhaeren wrote of Claus in 1901 : "His art is sure, clear and ceaselessly in search of air, light and life. It commands respect in this country as the art of a Master" (World Impressionism : The International Movement, New York, 1990, p. 261).
Luminism, the term applied to Belgian Impressionism, was taken from the group of artists Vie et Lumière which was formed circa 1904 around Emile Claus who exhibited with the members of La Libre Estethique (see also lots 201 and 233). The group paid homage to the old Flemish tradition of light which was of continuing importance to the modern artists. The special contribution of Belgian Impressionism, it was said, was that "to the truth and beauty of prismatic colours it added the distinction of well-thoutht-out design" (Frank Rutter, Belgian Art in Exile, London, 1916, p. 16).
Zonneschijn ('sunshine'), the artist's house at Astene on the banks of the Lys was a haven for writers such as Emile Verhaeren and Cyriel Buysse. Claus was not unique among the Belgian masters in his intimacy with writers and his style was as much inspired by Zola as by the Impressionist artists.
La lecture reveals the influence of his Impressionist colleagues and friends Henri le Sidaner, Jules Bastien-Lepage and especially Camille Lemonnier. The treatment of the light in the sunlit garden reveals an impressionistic touch although the figure is still very realistic: Claus never allowed his figures to evaporate in the diffused surroundings. The artist even showed an anecdotal side to his painting, displaying the photographer's sense of detail and eye for a perfect moment.
The sitter is possibly the artist's wife (as a visual comparison please refer to Madame Claus dans l'atelier in the catalogue of the exhibition Emile Claus in the Museum of Modern Art in Oostende, 14 June - 15 October 1997).
Between 1889-92 Claus spent several winters in Paris (where he exhibited annually at the Salon until 1914) during which time he slowly abandoned his academic naturalism and started focussing on the play of light while increasingly embracing plein air painting.
The poet and critic Emile Verhaeren wrote of Claus in 1901 : "His art is sure, clear and ceaselessly in search of air, light and life. It commands respect in this country as the art of a Master" (World Impressionism : The International Movement, New York, 1990, p. 261).
Luminism, the term applied to Belgian Impressionism, was taken from the group of artists Vie et Lumière which was formed circa 1904 around Emile Claus who exhibited with the members of La Libre Estethique (see also lots 201 and 233). The group paid homage to the old Flemish tradition of light which was of continuing importance to the modern artists. The special contribution of Belgian Impressionism, it was said, was that "to the truth and beauty of prismatic colours it added the distinction of well-thoutht-out design" (Frank Rutter, Belgian Art in Exile, London, 1916, p. 16).
Zonneschijn ('sunshine'), the artist's house at Astene on the banks of the Lys was a haven for writers such as Emile Verhaeren and Cyriel Buysse. Claus was not unique among the Belgian masters in his intimacy with writers and his style was as much inspired by Zola as by the Impressionist artists.
La lecture reveals the influence of his Impressionist colleagues and friends Henri le Sidaner, Jules Bastien-Lepage and especially Camille Lemonnier. The treatment of the light in the sunlit garden reveals an impressionistic touch although the figure is still very realistic: Claus never allowed his figures to evaporate in the diffused surroundings. The artist even showed an anecdotal side to his painting, displaying the photographer's sense of detail and eye for a perfect moment.
The sitter is possibly the artist's wife (as a visual comparison please refer to Madame Claus dans l'atelier in the catalogue of the exhibition Emile Claus in the Museum of Modern Art in Oostende, 14 June - 15 October 1997).