DOI issue:
No. 136 (June, 1908)
DOI article:Lees, Frederic: Emile Wauters, Belgian portrait-painter
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28254#0314
Emile IVauters
and others. Like them, he endeavoured to in-
terpret nature, that is to say, to be true in every-
thing. This love of truth impelled him to paint
one of his large canvases—that which to-day
ornaments the grand staircase of the Hotel de
Ville at Brussels—entirely in the open-air. The
Armed Citizens of Brussels demanding the Charter
from Duke John IV. of Brabant, as this picture
is entitled, has nothing conventional in its scheme
of colours. The general harmony is grey, yet the
colour is warm. It is painted in a new and severe
key ; it is, in short, a quiet, unostentatious symphony
in grey. The prince and the group of armed men
on horseback are finely conceived, and if it were not
for a certain theatrical air in one of the poses, the
rather too obtrusive hind-
quarters of a horse, and a
suspicion of coldness in the
execution, the picture would
be one of the best Wauters
has painted.
Wauters was one of the
few Belgians invited to
attend the opening of the
Suez Canal. Being young,
the new world to which he
was introduced, with its
many types of people, their
strange costumes seen in
such new effects of light,
and its wonderful wealth of
colour on all sides, made
a deep impression upon
him. He returned from
Egypt with eyes dazzled by
the beauties which he had
seen during the fetes, long-
ing for a favourable oppor-
tunity to reproduce them
upon canvas.
This opportunity pre-
sented itself in the form of
a commission from a finan-
cial company to paint a
panoramic view of Cairo
and the Banks of the Nile,
an enormous canvas (380
feet by 49 feet) which is
now in a huge oriental
rotunda in the Parc du Cin-
quantennaire at Brussels.
This gigantic picture, the
.superb effect of which is
unaided by the usual arti- “ mlle. cremsr
ficial foreground so unworthy of a work of art,
is undoubtedly the painter’s most individual
and robust work, and shows a puissance de
lumiere which very few painters of Eastern scenes
have attained. Exhibited first at Brussels, and
afterwards, in 1882, at Vienna, this panorama
met with extraordinary success. It came as a
revelation to everybody, but particularly to the
artistic world, as is proved by the fact that the
painter’s confreres in Brussels made a manifestation
in his honour. When the picture was taken to
Vienna its exhibition was inaugurated by the
Emperor Francis Joseph, who, on reaching the
top of the staircase, and after casting a circular
glance at the immense canvas, exclaimed : “ There
BY EMII.E WAUTERS
294
and others. Like them, he endeavoured to in-
terpret nature, that is to say, to be true in every-
thing. This love of truth impelled him to paint
one of his large canvases—that which to-day
ornaments the grand staircase of the Hotel de
Ville at Brussels—entirely in the open-air. The
Armed Citizens of Brussels demanding the Charter
from Duke John IV. of Brabant, as this picture
is entitled, has nothing conventional in its scheme
of colours. The general harmony is grey, yet the
colour is warm. It is painted in a new and severe
key ; it is, in short, a quiet, unostentatious symphony
in grey. The prince and the group of armed men
on horseback are finely conceived, and if it were not
for a certain theatrical air in one of the poses, the
rather too obtrusive hind-
quarters of a horse, and a
suspicion of coldness in the
execution, the picture would
be one of the best Wauters
has painted.
Wauters was one of the
few Belgians invited to
attend the opening of the
Suez Canal. Being young,
the new world to which he
was introduced, with its
many types of people, their
strange costumes seen in
such new effects of light,
and its wonderful wealth of
colour on all sides, made
a deep impression upon
him. He returned from
Egypt with eyes dazzled by
the beauties which he had
seen during the fetes, long-
ing for a favourable oppor-
tunity to reproduce them
upon canvas.
This opportunity pre-
sented itself in the form of
a commission from a finan-
cial company to paint a
panoramic view of Cairo
and the Banks of the Nile,
an enormous canvas (380
feet by 49 feet) which is
now in a huge oriental
rotunda in the Parc du Cin-
quantennaire at Brussels.
This gigantic picture, the
.superb effect of which is
unaided by the usual arti- “ mlle. cremsr
ficial foreground so unworthy of a work of art,
is undoubtedly the painter’s most individual
and robust work, and shows a puissance de
lumiere which very few painters of Eastern scenes
have attained. Exhibited first at Brussels, and
afterwards, in 1882, at Vienna, this panorama
met with extraordinary success. It came as a
revelation to everybody, but particularly to the
artistic world, as is proved by the fact that the
painter’s confreres in Brussels made a manifestation
in his honour. When the picture was taken to
Vienna its exhibition was inaugurated by the
Emperor Francis Joseph, who, on reaching the
top of the staircase, and after casting a circular
glance at the immense canvas, exclaimed : “ There
BY EMII.E WAUTERS
294