DOI issue:
Nr. 77 (August 1899)
DOI article:Mourey, Gabriel: The work of Emile Claus
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19232#0173
Emile Claus
vinced Emile’s mother that she ought to send him
to the Antwerp Academy. As for the father, they
would use a little strategy with him, in order to
gain his consent. As soon as he was back in
Antwerp, the good-natured musician wired to
“ Emile Claus, artiste-peintre,” as follows : “ The
director of the Royal Academy wants you. Peter
Benoit.” The astonishment caused by the arrival
of this official missive may easily be imagined.
After a long discussion the family at last resolved
to let the boy go, in deference to the desire of so
exalted a functionary, and he was at once sum-
moned to appear. Said his father : “ Your mother
and I have decided to send you to Antwerp to
study painting. Here are a hundred and fifty
francs ; and remember you won’t receive a penny
more from me. Now, be off.”
You should hear Claus tell the story himself, in
his own picturesque words ; hear him recount how
he left home and reached Antwerp; how he spent
several weeks in the studio of Jacob Jacobs,
whither he had been sent by de Keyser, whose free
pupil he was at the Academy • and how, at the end
of his resources, he had to earn his daily bread
with Joseph Geefs, the statuary, filling up his time
by colouring the Chemins de la Croix, which were
the sculptor’s speciality. He worked all day long,
and at night gave drawing lessons in order to be
able to keep up his studies at the Academy.
“ Despite the influence-—the terrible, inevitable
influence—of the classic formulae, from which no
one can escape, I had,” says Claus, as he recalls
these bygone days, “preserved from my free life in
the open air, a deep love for all that was real. Out-
door scenes, however commonplace, scenes palpi-
tating and vibrating with life and air, interested
me infinitely more than the contemplation of the
models, no matter how lifelike, stuck in conven-
tional attitudes, which we were made to copy in
the cold light of the workrooms. But I was afraid,
overawed by the celebrity, the high position, of
my masters. By myself I was brave enough, but
with them I grew timid. They continually talked
to us threateningly, as though we were children, of
the punishments in store for those who should not
remain all their lives faithful to the immortal tradi-
tions of the glorious School of Antwerp; and when
I roamed on Sundays in the delightful country, and
“ LA BARRIERS
I46
{By permission of M. Max Bouvet)
BY EMILE CLAUS
vinced Emile’s mother that she ought to send him
to the Antwerp Academy. As for the father, they
would use a little strategy with him, in order to
gain his consent. As soon as he was back in
Antwerp, the good-natured musician wired to
“ Emile Claus, artiste-peintre,” as follows : “ The
director of the Royal Academy wants you. Peter
Benoit.” The astonishment caused by the arrival
of this official missive may easily be imagined.
After a long discussion the family at last resolved
to let the boy go, in deference to the desire of so
exalted a functionary, and he was at once sum-
moned to appear. Said his father : “ Your mother
and I have decided to send you to Antwerp to
study painting. Here are a hundred and fifty
francs ; and remember you won’t receive a penny
more from me. Now, be off.”
You should hear Claus tell the story himself, in
his own picturesque words ; hear him recount how
he left home and reached Antwerp; how he spent
several weeks in the studio of Jacob Jacobs,
whither he had been sent by de Keyser, whose free
pupil he was at the Academy • and how, at the end
of his resources, he had to earn his daily bread
with Joseph Geefs, the statuary, filling up his time
by colouring the Chemins de la Croix, which were
the sculptor’s speciality. He worked all day long,
and at night gave drawing lessons in order to be
able to keep up his studies at the Academy.
“ Despite the influence-—the terrible, inevitable
influence—of the classic formulae, from which no
one can escape, I had,” says Claus, as he recalls
these bygone days, “preserved from my free life in
the open air, a deep love for all that was real. Out-
door scenes, however commonplace, scenes palpi-
tating and vibrating with life and air, interested
me infinitely more than the contemplation of the
models, no matter how lifelike, stuck in conven-
tional attitudes, which we were made to copy in
the cold light of the workrooms. But I was afraid,
overawed by the celebrity, the high position, of
my masters. By myself I was brave enough, but
with them I grew timid. They continually talked
to us threateningly, as though we were children, of
the punishments in store for those who should not
remain all their lives faithful to the immortal tradi-
tions of the glorious School of Antwerp; and when
I roamed on Sundays in the delightful country, and
“ LA BARRIERS
I46
{By permission of M. Max Bouvet)
BY EMILE CLAUS