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Exporting ‘Primitive’ Belgian arts: A Challenge for Belgian Symbolism in Britain

par Dessy, Clément
Référence ‘Primitive Renaissances’: Northern European and Germanic Art at the Fin de Siècle to the 1930s (11-12 avril 2014: The National Gallery, Londres)
Publication Non publié, 2014-04-11

Communication à un colloque

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Résumé :

The paper explores the representation of Belgian painting and literature as Flemish or German ‘Primitive’ revival (or permanence) in the nineteenth century and its particular perceptions in the British context. First, it shows the difference of process that could exist between such Belgian ‘Primitive’ constructs in France compared to Britain. It has often been demonstrated indeed that the success of Belgian symbolists in France (notably, Maurice Maeterlinck and Georges Rodenbach) was due to the Nordic image promoted by this cultural group and their explicit references to the universe of Flemish painters during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. If this representation also constituted a reason for Parisian critics to denigrate a Belgian or German ‘invasion’ and the ‘dangers’ of cosmopolitanism, what was the import of this image across the Channel, where the attraction of Nordic fogs are less exotic for British audiences than for the French? The paper thus will consider the discourse of ‘Primitive’ art in columns published by Belgian writers and artists in British magazines (The Magazine of Art and The Studio). Fernand Khnopff, Octave Maus or Émile Verhaeren promoted Belgian art and celebrated Belgium as a land for art, through its artistic and popular events. They present it as a land where the time of the ‘Primitive’ art is presented as permanent and may justify deep links established with German and English areas. The paper also explores English reviews of Belgian art and artistic events in the same journals and magazines to articulate the scope and significance of Belgian self-promotion. During WW1, the exile of many Belgian artists and writers to Britain raised their cultural production to the forefront of public attention. Their success, crossing over the Channel where the ‘Fleming’ is perceived ‘nearer the English’ than to the French (Michel Saddler, Introduction, Émile Verhaeren’s Belgium’s Agony, 1915), may be perceived as another consequence of their international promotion and constructions of Belgian and Flemish Primitive art.