Theo Van Rysselberghe
"Autoportrait au Panama 1918"
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THEO VAN RYSSELBERGHE
Ghent 1862-1926 Saint-Clair, Var
AUTOPORTRAIT AU PANAMA, SAINT CLAIR
1918
Oil on canvas
80 x 65 cm.
Dated: lower left '1918
Provenance: Private collection, Belgium; Pogu, Paris; E. van Rysselberghe, Paris.
Exhibited: Pogu, Paris; The Periscope, July-August 1962.
Literature: R. Feltkamp, Théo Van Rysselberghe. Catalog Raisonné, No. 1918-033 (ill) .; Guy Pogu, Théo Van Rysselberghe, sa vie: dance le cadre des recherches techniques et psycho-sociales des causes de l'art. Paris: Premiers Eléments, 1963, cat. 136, pl. 11.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the area around Saint-Clair was a popular place for many artists. Like Henri Edmond Cross and many others, Theo van Rysselberghe settled on the Mediterranean. The self-portrait with Panama hat from 1918 is witness to this.
Of all the themes that Van Rysselberghe dealt with, the human figure was the most popular. During his life he would immortalize many friends and acquaintances. Among them were the writers Emile Verhaeren, Maurice Maeterlinck and Octave Maus, the leading figure of Les XX. In this progressive artists' society, where the work of Seurat and Signac was already exhibited in 1886, he met Jan Toorop, who, under the influence of these French pointillists, also devoted himself to the new style.