Léon Spilliaert The early years at Royal Museums of Fine Art Belgium

This focus exhibition places Spilliaert's illustrations for 'Théâtre' in context. They are presented with a selection of the artist's early works from the collection of the Museum. Spilliaert was barely 21 years old when he drew the illustrations. They testify to a mature and highly personal translation of Maeterlinck's uncanny theatrical world and point ahead to subjects and representations of drawings he would create in the following years.

Léon Spilliaert unfolded his talent in art in an entirely unique way. Even as a teenager, he was drawn to the 'paper world'. Inspired by literature and philosophy, he depicts the interpretation of his reading in drawings.

A brief stint at the Bruges academy in late 1899 does not prevent him from going public with his work. He first does so in the closed circles of art and book lovers, such as the well-known Brussels publisher and bookseller Edmond Deman and writer Emile Verhaeren.

In the first decade of the 20th century, the period highlighted in this focus exhibition, the young artist is in existential search. After brief stays in Brussels and Paris, he returns to his familiar Ostend. The restlessness and symbolic layering of his earliest works gives way to a deep experience of the here and now, depicted in interiors and seascapes.