Willy Schlobach Art

Willy Schlobach 1864-1951 Belgian Les falaises (The Cliffs) Oil on canvas Signed with artist’s monogram “W.S.” (lower right) This coastal landscape showcases the bold palette and...

Signed and dated pointillist landscape oil on canvas by Belgian impressionist painter Willy Schlobach. The piece depicts a coastal view looking out over the dark green sea to where it meets the powder blue sky on the distant horizon, with rock formations on either side. This work was executed in 1907 - the definitive mature period for Schlobach's work. Paintings by the artist executed between 1906 and 1908 are the pinnacle of his oeuvre and show the influence and ideas of neo impressionism brought by his friend and compatriot Theo van Rysselberghe who had learnt from Signac and Seurat in Paris. Schlobach painted numerous coastal views in this period which display a free approach to pointillism with theory being displaced by a desire to create luminosity and effect. Signature: Signed lower right and dated 1907 Dimensions: Framed: 29"x33" Unframed: 20"x24" Provenance: Private French collection Further information: This work was executed in 1907 - the definitive mature period for Schlobach's work. Paintings by the artist executed between 1906 and 1908 are the pinnacle of his oeuvre and show the influence and ideas of neo impressionism brought by his friend and compatriot Theo van Rysselberghe who had learnt from Signac and Seurat in Paris. Schlobach painted numerous coastal views in this period which display a free approach to pointillism with theory being displaced by a desire to create luminosity and effect. Willy Schlobach first studied at the Academy in Brussels and then later in Ghent. At the precocious age of nineteen he was already at the forefront of painters in Belgium numbering among his close friends Emile Verhaeren and Theo van Rysselberghe whose instructive influence on him was of great significance. He was one of the founding members of the group 'Les XX' who were broadly speaking avant-garde and influenced by the Parisian developments in painting but by no means uniform in their style or approach (see also have lots 201 and 233). Octave Maus, a lawyer and critic was the driving force behind 'Les XX' but the most important painter was Theo van Rysselberghe. Van Rysselberghe had lived and worked in Paris and brought to Belgium an intimate knowledge and understanding of the Neo-Impressionist techniques of Seurat and Signac which were to be a great influence on the younger generation of Belgian painters such as Willy Finch and Willy Schlobach. In the late 1880s Schlobach responded with enthusiasm to these new ideas emanating from Paris and produced some well structured and highly organised pointillist work in which his favoured subject matter was coastal scenes. Schlobach was also influenced by the other main group within 'Les XX' which was best represented by Fernand Khnopff. As well as working in a pointillist manner he produced paintings full of symbolism and reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelites whose work he had studied and admired on visits to England. It is, however, in the neo-impressionist or luminist work that Schlobach found greater freedom of expression away from the sometimes claustrophobic subject matter of the symbolists. On his visits to London Schlobach had been influenced not only by the Pre-Raphaelite painters but also by the work of Turner whose atmospheric and misty paintings...