Jean Delville: Difference between revisions
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Delville created works of art with great technical skill and originality. He tried to find a style apart from the naturalistic aestheticism and the materialistic realism of the day; his work is idealistic. | Delville created works of art with great technical skill and originality. He tried to find a style apart from the naturalistic aestheticism and the materialistic realism of the day; his work is idealistic. | ||
[[File:Jean Delville in his studio.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Delville in his studio]] | |||
=== First exhibition === | === First exhibition === | ||
Deville's first publicly exhibited painting was a large canvas called ''Le Cycle Passionel'' of a nude woman. He was just eighteen, and the year was 1885. | Deville's first publicly exhibited painting was a large canvas called ''Le Cycle Passionel'' of a nude woman. He was just eighteen, and the year was 1885. | ||
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Young Delville depicted the whirlwind of sensual desire and lewdness which Dante had described in the ''Inferno''. The picture caught the attention of the art-critics by its disclosure of a new genius of the brush who possessed not only phenomenal skill but great power of conception. It also struck the note of exalted seriousness which has characterised all his work... [his pictures], while classical in their structural and technical perfection, made no concession to softness or sentimentality and always made the affirmation of power and chastity.<ref>James H. Cousins, "The Life and Work of Jean Delville" ''The Theosophist 47.3 (December, 1925), 398.</ref> | Young Delville depicted the whirlwind of sensual desire and lewdness which Dante had described in the ''Inferno''. The picture caught the attention of the art-critics by its disclosure of a new genius of the brush who possessed not only phenomenal skill but great power of conception. It also struck the note of exalted seriousness which has characterised all his work... [his pictures], while classical in their structural and technical perfection, made no concession to softness or sentimentality and always made the affirmation of power and chastity.<ref>James H. Cousins, "The Life and Work of Jean Delville" ''The Theosophist 47.3 (December, 1925), 398.</ref> | ||
</blockquote> | </blockquote> | ||
=== Exhibitions at Salons de la Rose+Croix === | |||
Sâr Joséphin Péladan (1858 -1918) created the Order of the Rose+Cross of the Temple and the Grail in Paris, 1884. Delville met Péladan in in 1887 or 1888, and adopted Rosicrucian ideas. "Between 1892 and 1895, he exhibited paintings in the Sâr’s Paris Salons of the Rose+Cross. After 1895, Delville dissociated himself from the Sâr, though he remained true to many of the latter’s esoteric concepts."<ref>Lynda Harris. "Jean Delville: Painting, Spirituality, and the Esoteric." ''The Quest'' 90.3 (May-June 2002), 94.</ref> | |||
=== Salon d'Art Idéalist === | |||
In 1896, Delville founded the '''Salon d'Art Idéalist''', "in imitation of the Salons de la Rose+Croix."<ref>"19th Century Painting: Jean Delville (1867-1953) Belgian Symbolist," Boston College Digital Archive of Art at [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/delville.html Boston College website.</ref> Members included Léon Frédéric, Auguste Levêque, Albert Ciamberlani, Constant Montald, Emile Motte, Victor Rousseau, Armand Point and Alexandre Séon among the members. These artists wanted art to go beyond realism and materialism into the concepts of the ideal; Aesthetic principles from [[Freemasonry|freemasonry]], [[Neoplatonism]], [[Rosicrucianism]], and [[Theosophy]] predominated. The salon existed for only about three years. | |||
=== Artistic style === | === Artistic style === | ||
<blockquote> | |||
As a mystic strongly influenced by Neoplatonism, Delville believed that visible reality was only a symbol, and that humans exist in three planes: the physical (the realm of facts), the astral (or spiritual world, the realm of laws), and the divine (the realm of causes). These higher planes of existence were the only significant ones. Materialism was a trap, and the soul had to guard against being trapped by its snares... Reincarnation was to provide the path to the highest level for those who perfected their will and spirit through initiation and magic. He reconciled his interest in the occult with Christianity by considering Catholicism to be in harmony with magical laws: the external forms of devotion concealed occult truths. Above all, however, Delville considered art to play a key role in uplifting people from their blindness. The true artist was an initiate who would present images which would teach and transform human nature.<ref>"19th Century Painting: Jean Delville (1867-1953) Belgian Symbolist," Boston College Digital Archive of Art at [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/delville.html Boston College website.</ref> | |||
</blockquote> | |||
Delville's work has been compared to .......... | Delville's work has been compared to .......... | ||
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* ''Le Cycle Passionel'' was his first exhibited work, in 1885. | * ''Le Cycle Passionel'' was his first exhibited work, in 1885. | ||
* ''Christ Glorified by the Children'' won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1895. | * ''Christ Glorified by the Children'' won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1895. | ||
* ''Treasures of Patin'' in 1895 | * ''Treasures of Patin'' in 1895. | ||
* ''The School of Plato'', painted in 1899, won the '''highest honor at the Universal Exhibition at Milan'''. | * ''The School of Plato'', painted in 1899, won the '''highest honor at the Universal Exhibition at Milan'''. | ||
* ''Love of Souls'' won the '''silver medal of the Paris Universal Exhibition''' of 1900. | * ''Love of Souls'' won the '''silver medal of the Paris Universal Exhibition''' of 1900. | ||
* ''The Man-God''. | * ''The Man-God''. | ||
* ''Prometheus'' cover art for Scriabin's score, painted in 1908. | * ''Prometheus'' cover art for Scriabin's score, painted in 1908. | ||
* Murals in Palais de Justice, Brussels in 1914 | * Murals in Palais de Justice, Brussels in 1914. | ||
* ''The Shudder of the Sphinx'' | * ''The Shudder of the Sphinx''. | ||
* ''The Unknown Splendours'' | * ''The Unknown Splendours''. | ||
* ''The Haunted Horizon'' | * ''The Haunted Horizon''. | ||
== Writings == | |||
* ''Dialogue entre nous''. 1895. This is a text outlining views on occultism and philosophy. | |||
* ''La Mission de l'Art''. 1900. Édouard Schuré wrote the preface. | |||
== Theosophical Society involvement == | == Theosophical Society involvement == | ||
Delville became a member of the [[Theosophical Society]] in the late 1890s. | Delville became a member of the [[Theosophical Society]] in the late 1890s; probably he was introduced to [[Theosophy]] by Édouard Schuré (1841 -1929), who was a member of the Society from 1884-1886. "In his [[Delville's] book ''The New Mission of Art'' (1900), he drew connections between Theosophy and the ideas of Schuré... he added a tower to his house in Forest, painting the meditation room at the top entirely in blue, with the Theosophical emblem at its summit."<ref>Lynda Harris. "Jean Delville: Painting, Spirituality, and the Esoteric." ''The Quest'' 90.3 (May-June 2002), 94.</ref> "Besant gave a series of lectures in Brussels in 1899 titled "La Sagesse Antique". Delville reviewed her talks in an article published in ''Le Thyrse'' that year.<ref>Jean Delville, 'A propos de la Sagesse Antique. Conference de Mme Annie Besant', ''Le Thyrse'' 9 (September 1, 1899), pp. 65-6.</ref> That same year, Delville founded ''La Lumière'', a Theosophical journal. | ||
Delville was a founder of the '''Theosophical Society in Belgium''' and served as its first General Secretary in the years 1911-1913, with Gaston Polak succeeding him.<ref>"General Secretaries Past and Present," ''The Theosophical Year Book, 1938'' (Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 152.</ref> He was a National Representative of the [[Order of the Star in the East]].<ref>James H. Cousins, "The Life and Work of Jean Delville, Theosophist Painter-Poet." ''The Theosophist''47.3 (December 1925), 397.</ref | Delville was a founder of the '''Theosophical Society in Belgium''' and served as its first General Secretary in the years 1911-1913, with Gaston Polak succeeding him.<ref>"General Secretaries Past and Present," ''The Theosophical Year Book, 1938'' (Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 152.</ref> He was a follower of [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]] and National Representative of the [[Order of the Star in the East]].<ref>James H. Cousins, "The Life and Work of Jean Delville, Theosophist Painter-Poet." ''The Theosophist''47.3 (December 1925), 397.</ref> | ||
[[File:Prometheus Symphony art.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Cover of score for Scriabin's ''Prometheus'']] | [[File:Prometheus Symphony art.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Cover of score for Scriabin's ''Prometheus'']] | ||
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I here thanks God (or whoever it was) who led me in the summer of 1925 to the presence of Jean Delville in Brussels and to the discovery of one of the world's master-artists and most exalted geniuses - an artist who, on the peak of achievement in his craft and in its recognition among those who know, counts it not inexpedient to be publicly identified with Theosophy , and wears, as naturally as he wears his coat, the badge of the National Representative of the Order of the Star in the East. Or the joy and inspiration of that meeting, with its immediate merging of mind with mind in the brotherhood of the spirit; for its gift to me of a vast and exalted realm of art, and a glorious ratification of some of my dreams of what the Theosophical spirit in art may accomplish for the beckoning of humanity towards the heights, I would here make acknowledgment...<ref>James H. Cousins, "The Life and Work of Jean Delville, Theosophist Painter-Poet." ''The Theosophist''47.3 (December 1925), 396-397.</ref> | I here thanks God (or whoever it was) who led me in the summer of 1925 to the presence of Jean Delville in Brussels and to the discovery of one of the world's master-artists and most exalted geniuses - an artist who, on the peak of achievement in his craft and in its recognition among those who know, counts it not inexpedient to be publicly identified with Theosophy , and wears, as naturally as he wears his coat, the badge of the National Representative of the Order of the Star in the East. Or the joy and inspiration of that meeting, with its immediate merging of mind with mind in the brotherhood of the spirit; for its gift to me of a vast and exalted realm of art, and a glorious ratification of some of my dreams of what the Theosophical spirit in art may accomplish for the beckoning of humanity towards the heights, I would here make acknowledgment...<ref>James H. Cousins, "The Life and Work of Jean Delville, Theosophist Painter-Poet." ''The Theosophist''47.3 (December 1925), 396-397.</ref> | ||
</blockquote> | </blockquote> | ||
== Later years == | |||
In the early twentieth century, Delville was a professor at the Glasgow School of Art.<ref>"19th Century Painting: Jean Delville (1867-1953) Belgian Symbolist," Boston College Digital Archive of Art at [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/delville.html Boston College website.</ref> | |||
== Other resources == | == Other resources == | ||
Revision as of 15:30, 18 October 2016
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Jean Delville (1867–1953) was a Belgian symbolist painter, author, and teacher. He was the first General Secretary of the Theosophical Society in Belgium, from 1911-1913.
Early years
Jean Delville was born in Louvain, Belgium on July 10, 1867. As a boy he was not interested in school, so at age 15 his parents allowed him to enroll in the Schools of Arts at Brussels. After two years of study, he was awarded prizes for composition, painting and drawing from life. [1][2]
Artistic career
Delville created works of art with great technical skill and originality. He tried to find a style apart from the naturalistic aestheticism and the materialistic realism of the day; his work is idealistic.
First exhibition
Deville's first publicly exhibited painting was a large canvas called Le Cycle Passionel of a nude woman. He was just eighteen, and the year was 1885.
Young Delville depicted the whirlwind of sensual desire and lewdness which Dante had described in the Inferno. The picture caught the attention of the art-critics by its disclosure of a new genius of the brush who possessed not only phenomenal skill but great power of conception. It also struck the note of exalted seriousness which has characterised all his work... [his pictures], while classical in their structural and technical perfection, made no concession to softness or sentimentality and always made the affirmation of power and chastity.[3]
Exhibitions at Salons de la Rose+Croix
Sâr Joséphin Péladan (1858 -1918) created the Order of the Rose+Cross of the Temple and the Grail in Paris, 1884. Delville met Péladan in in 1887 or 1888, and adopted Rosicrucian ideas. "Between 1892 and 1895, he exhibited paintings in the Sâr’s Paris Salons of the Rose+Cross. After 1895, Delville dissociated himself from the Sâr, though he remained true to many of the latter’s esoteric concepts."[4]
Salon d'Art Idéalist
In 1896, Delville founded the Salon d'Art Idéalist, "in imitation of the Salons de la Rose+Croix."[5] Members included Léon Frédéric, Auguste Levêque, Albert Ciamberlani, Constant Montald, Emile Motte, Victor Rousseau, Armand Point and Alexandre Séon among the members. These artists wanted art to go beyond realism and materialism into the concepts of the ideal; Aesthetic principles from freemasonry, Neoplatonism, Rosicrucianism, and Theosophy predominated. The salon existed for only about three years.
Artistic style
As a mystic strongly influenced by Neoplatonism, Delville believed that visible reality was only a symbol, and that humans exist in three planes: the physical (the realm of facts), the astral (or spiritual world, the realm of laws), and the divine (the realm of causes). These higher planes of existence were the only significant ones. Materialism was a trap, and the soul had to guard against being trapped by its snares... Reincarnation was to provide the path to the highest level for those who perfected their will and spirit through initiation and magic. He reconciled his interest in the occult with Christianity by considering Catholicism to be in harmony with magical laws: the external forms of devotion concealed occult truths. Above all, however, Delville considered art to play a key role in uplifting people from their blindness. The true artist was an initiate who would present images which would teach and transform human nature.[6]
Delville's work has been compared to ..........
Dr. James Cousins, who greatly admired Nicholas Roerich as well as Deville, wrote: "Jean Delville of Belgium, who, if Roerich be Castor in the firmament of art, is assuredly his true brother Pollux."[7]
Paintings, exhibitions, and prizes
- Le Cycle Passionel was his first exhibited work, in 1885.
- Christ Glorified by the Children won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1895.
- Treasures of Patin in 1895.
- The School of Plato, painted in 1899, won the highest honor at the Universal Exhibition at Milan.
- Love of Souls won the silver medal of the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900.
- The Man-God.
- Prometheus cover art for Scriabin's score, painted in 1908.
- Murals in Palais de Justice, Brussels in 1914.
- The Shudder of the Sphinx.
- The Unknown Splendours.
- The Haunted Horizon.
Writings
- Dialogue entre nous. 1895. This is a text outlining views on occultism and philosophy.
- La Mission de l'Art. 1900. Édouard Schuré wrote the preface.
Theosophical Society involvement
Delville became a member of the Theosophical Society in the late 1890s; probably he was introduced to Theosophy by Édouard Schuré (1841 -1929), who was a member of the Society from 1884-1886. "In his [[Delville's] book The New Mission of Art (1900), he drew connections between Theosophy and the ideas of Schuré... he added a tower to his house in Forest, painting the meditation room at the top entirely in blue, with the Theosophical emblem at its summit."[8] "Besant gave a series of lectures in Brussels in 1899 titled "La Sagesse Antique". Delville reviewed her talks in an article published in Le Thyrse that year.[9] That same year, Delville founded La Lumière, a Theosophical journal.
Delville was a founder of the Theosophical Society in Belgium and served as its first General Secretary in the years 1911-1913, with Gaston Polak succeeding him.[10] He was a follower of Jiddu Krishnamurti and National Representative of the Order of the Star in the East.[11]
Friendship with Scriabin
In 1908, Russian composer and pianist Alexander Scriabin relocated to Brussels, and there met Delville.
When Scriabin composed his fifth symphony, Prometheus or "The Poem of Fire" in 1909-1910, Delville created the cover art for the score.
Delville, and perhaps Scriabin, had joined a secret cult within Theosophy called "Sons of the Flames of Wisdom." They worshiped Prometheus, because those fires, colors, lights were metasymbols of man's highest thoughts. Fire was Prometheus's stolen gift to man...[12]
Scriabin was delighted with the androgynous face and the symbolism.
Friendship with James Cousins
Dr. James Cousins, an Irish Irish writer, critic, and teacher, wrote of his first meeting with Jean Delville:
I here thanks God (or whoever it was) who led me in the summer of 1925 to the presence of Jean Delville in Brussels and to the discovery of one of the world's master-artists and most exalted geniuses - an artist who, on the peak of achievement in his craft and in its recognition among those who know, counts it not inexpedient to be publicly identified with Theosophy , and wears, as naturally as he wears his coat, the badge of the National Representative of the Order of the Star in the East. Or the joy and inspiration of that meeting, with its immediate merging of mind with mind in the brotherhood of the spirit; for its gift to me of a vast and exalted realm of art, and a glorious ratification of some of my dreams of what the Theosophical spirit in art may accomplish for the beckoning of humanity towards the heights, I would here make acknowledgment...[13]
Later years
In the early twentieth century, Delville was a professor at the Glasgow School of Art.[14]
Other resources
The Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals lists 22 articles by or about Delville.
Articles
- Harris, Philip S. "Delville, Jean." Theosophical Encyclopedia (Quezon City, Philippines: Theosophical Publishing House, 2006), 191-192. Available at Theosopedia.
- Jean Delville: Painting, Spirituality, and the Esoteric by Lynda Harris
- Jean Delville at Wikipedia
Notes
- ↑ "Who's Who in the Theosophical Society: Delville, Jean," The Theosophical Year Book, 1938 (Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 177.
- ↑ Ted G. Davy, "Arnold, Edwin," Theosophical Encyclopedia (Quezon City, Philippines: Theosophical Publishing House, 2006), 49. Available at Theosopedia.
- ↑ James H. Cousins, "The Life and Work of Jean Delville" The Theosophist 47.3 (December, 1925), 398.
- ↑ Lynda Harris. "Jean Delville: Painting, Spirituality, and the Esoteric." The Quest 90.3 (May-June 2002), 94.
- ↑ "19th Century Painting: Jean Delville (1867-1953) Belgian Symbolist," Boston College Digital Archive of Art at [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/delville.html Boston College website.
- ↑ "19th Century Painting: Jean Delville (1867-1953) Belgian Symbolist," Boston College Digital Archive of Art at [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/delville.html Boston College website.
- ↑ James H. Cousins, "The Life and Work of Jean Delville, Theosophist Painter-Poet." The Theosophist47.3 (December 1925), 396.
- ↑ Lynda Harris. "Jean Delville: Painting, Spirituality, and the Esoteric." The Quest 90.3 (May-June 2002), 94.
- ↑ Jean Delville, 'A propos de la Sagesse Antique. Conference de Mme Annie Besant', Le Thyrse 9 (September 1, 1899), pp. 65-6.
- ↑ "General Secretaries Past and Present," The Theosophical Year Book, 1938 (Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 152.
- ↑ James H. Cousins, "The Life and Work of Jean Delville, Theosophist Painter-Poet." The Theosophist47.3 (December 1925), 397.
- ↑ Faubion Bowers, Scriabin: A Biography of the Russian Composer 1871-1915, Volume II (Tokyo:Kodansha International Ltd, 1969), 206-207.
- ↑ James H. Cousins, "The Life and Work of Jean Delville, Theosophist Painter-Poet." The Theosophist47.3 (December 1925), 396-397.
- ↑ "19th Century Painting: Jean Delville (1867-1953) Belgian Symbolist," Boston College Digital Archive of Art at [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/delville.html Boston College website.
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