Jean Delville - Maître de l'idéal by Various

His oil-on-canvas compositions are exquisitely rendered visions of mythological and occult subjects angelic and demonic entities engage in a balletic struggle, colored with an unusual palette that could derive from the hues of a coral reef or schools of tropical fish. Jean Delville is one of the lesser known Belgian painters, but hopefully this monograph and the Exhibition it accompanies, will lead to a wider appreciation. Among 'Les XX', Fernand Khnopff, James Ensor, William Degouve De Nunques, Leon Frederic and Jean Delville were brilliant artists, creating uniquely personal art I feel to be superior to the work of consensus 'masters' like Renoir, Monet, and the rest of the Impressionists, as well as Cezanne, Matisse and his fellow Fauves, and even Gauguin (I realize the reverence with which these artists are viewed, and I don't deny their talent or their importance). Paris and 'Le Rose et le Croix', a gathering of like-minded artists, poets and writers inspired and loosely led by the Rosicrucian mystic, 'Sar' Peladan, were previously considered to be the Symbolist epicenter, perhaps because Gustave Moreau and Pierre Puvis De Chavannes, two of the artists most responsible for the development of Symbolism, happened to be French.īut it was in Belgium, and to an equal extent Switzerland, that most of the great Symbolist artists could be found. Jean Delville was a prominent member of 'Les XX' (The Twenty), a group of brilliant young Belgian artists that the resurgence of appreciation for fin-de-siecle 'academic' painting has re-evaluated as the heart of Symbolism. They focus on artists that are mostly ignored by publishers, rescuing the legacy of many 19th Century Painters who were on the very edge of the precipice, one step from the void that threatens to swallow up all memory of their work.

paper-stock, binding methods, image reproduction quality/resolution, dustjacket design &/or cover material/format, overall book design, page layouts), as well as their decidedly eclectic choices of subject matter. The few Somogy volumes in my library stand out for their superb production values (i.e.

Somogy are not one of the larger European artbook publishers, like the internationally prolific Taschen, and they don't have the reputation and impressive back-catalogues of Thames & Hudson or Hatje Cantz, but when I come across a book that lists Somogy as the publisher, my interest-level rises by at least 30%.

Jean Delville - Maître de l'idéal by Various