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#0183
Emile Claus
once asked in my hearing what he thought of his
own work. “ I don’t think about it at all,” he
replied. “ I paint with all my soul in my work.
I look on Nature simply and ingenuously, and I
strive, without prejudice, to reproduce her infinite
beauties to the best of my power. Nature leads
me on, a humble slave, captive and mystified.
Never can I sufficiently adore her, never can I
bend the knee to her with the respect she
deserves ! ”
None but a Flamand could seriously use such
language. And Claus has indeed all the richness
of temperament, all the abundance and fertility,
all the strong sap of his race. Like the Flemish
masters of old, he works in sheer delight, in
absolute sanity. There is nothing maudlin,
nothing unwholesome about him; even in his
most delicate moods he remains strong and virile.
Thus, as we have seen, his personality springs
direct from his love of the native soil. This senti-
ment it is which animates him now as it did at the
time when he was strong enough, in face of great
temptation, to resume full possession of himself
and all his faculties. What an artist and what art
we should have lost, had he been weak enough to
succumb !
In the old days he was accused of being an
“impressionist,” and such he is to a certain degree,
just as any one may be without disrespect to
the glorious traditions of the painter’s art. He is
an impressionist to this extent—that he possesses
the gift of feeling with the utmost keenness the true
meaning of Nature in all her manifestations; while
he is bound by no rule, subject to no formula, in his
endeavour to interpret that meaning on his canvas.
But, unlike most impressionists, he has the rare
capacity to know how to choose his impressions, to
test them to the uttermost, and never to rest until
he has translated them to his full satisfaction, dis-
daining the haphazard attempts which are suffi-
cient for the majority of modern landscapists.
Impressionist! One need feel no surprise that
the superficial observer dubs him thus ; for nowa-
days every painter whose work is luminous and
bright, and devoid of bitumen, earns and deserves
the title ! The truth is that Claus, without adapt-
ing his style to any special method, is mainly con-
cerned that his works shall be as full of atmosphere
as possible, that his touch shall be as free and his
colour as pure as he can make them. Thus he
achieves that remarkable freshness of tint, that
brightness of colouring, which constitute one of the
chief charms of his art.
So much for the work of Emile Claus. A word
BY EMILE CLAUS
155
“SARCLEUSES DF, LIN ”
(In the Antwerp Museum)
once asked in my hearing what he thought of his
own work. “ I don’t think about it at all,” he
replied. “ I paint with all my soul in my work.
I look on Nature simply and ingenuously, and I
strive, without prejudice, to reproduce her infinite
beauties to the best of my power. Nature leads
me on, a humble slave, captive and mystified.
Never can I sufficiently adore her, never can I
bend the knee to her with the respect she
deserves ! ”
None but a Flamand could seriously use such
language. And Claus has indeed all the richness
of temperament, all the abundance and fertility,
all the strong sap of his race. Like the Flemish
masters of old, he works in sheer delight, in
absolute sanity. There is nothing maudlin,
nothing unwholesome about him; even in his
most delicate moods he remains strong and virile.
Thus, as we have seen, his personality springs
direct from his love of the native soil. This senti-
ment it is which animates him now as it did at the
time when he was strong enough, in face of great
temptation, to resume full possession of himself
and all his faculties. What an artist and what art
we should have lost, had he been weak enough to
succumb !
In the old days he was accused of being an
“impressionist,” and such he is to a certain degree,
just as any one may be without disrespect to
the glorious traditions of the painter’s art. He is
an impressionist to this extent—that he possesses
the gift of feeling with the utmost keenness the true
meaning of Nature in all her manifestations; while
he is bound by no rule, subject to no formula, in his
endeavour to interpret that meaning on his canvas.
But, unlike most impressionists, he has the rare
capacity to know how to choose his impressions, to
test them to the uttermost, and never to rest until
he has translated them to his full satisfaction, dis-
daining the haphazard attempts which are suffi-
cient for the majority of modern landscapists.
Impressionist! One need feel no surprise that
the superficial observer dubs him thus ; for nowa-
days every painter whose work is luminous and
bright, and devoid of bitumen, earns and deserves
the title ! The truth is that Claus, without adapt-
ing his style to any special method, is mainly con-
cerned that his works shall be as full of atmosphere
as possible, that his touch shall be as free and his
colour as pure as he can make them. Thus he
achieves that remarkable freshness of tint, that
brightness of colouring, which constitute one of the
chief charms of his art.
So much for the work of Emile Claus. A word
BY EMILE CLAUS
155
“SARCLEUSES DF, LIN ”
(In the Antwerp Museum)