Studio: international art (40.1907)

Leon Frederic, Belgian Painter

with thorns, and the bloodstains are abloom
with roses.

From that date forth allegorical and symbolical
works alternate with what may be termed “docu-
mentary” studies. In 1892 we have La Vanite des
Grandeurs, La Route Zelandaise] in La Saluta-
tion Ang'elique; in 1894, Tout est Mort, an un-
finished polyptych, in which the artist describes
symbolically the failure of Justice, Religion and
Love. Then La Nature, a pentaptych in which
each of the Seasons is allegorically represented in
the guise of a child in an extraordinary mingling of
flowers and fruit, birds and insects.

In 1896 appeared the Recureuses de Chaudrons,
a charming group of young Zelandaises, painted in
a luminous landscape; the Arc-en-Ciel; the Peleuses
de Pommes de Terre, three young girls dressed in
red. In 1897 came Les Ages de VOuvrier, a large
triptych which is one of the painter’s chief works,

and is now in the Luxembourg Gallery in Paris.
In 1900 Frederic painted the Consents, a big
composition commissioned by the civic authorities of
Brussels to adorn the Salle des Milices of the Hotel
de Ville ; also Le Ruisseau, a large triptych con-
taining LEau qui chante, LEaii qui tombe, and
LEau qui dort; the uncommonly graceful Cerisier
fleuii; the Clair de Lune, a polyptych exhibited
at the Salon of the Libre Esthetique, where it was
purchased by the State for the Brussels Gallery.
Then, in 1905, came La Mort du pay'an, which
hangs in the Liege Gallery; and lastly, in 1906, a
Scene de la Vie Villageoise en Ardenne, displayed at
the Ghent Salon, and acquired for the gallery of
that town.

In a word, Leon Frederic is indeed a painter of
our own time, who has employed to express himself
such of the traditional methods as he has judged
to be best adapted to his work.

“les recureuses de chaudrons”
180

BY LEON FREDERIC