Zerone Birti, 1988 | Abstract painter

Zerone Birti was born in Brussels, Belgium where he now lives.

From his early observations of life around him as a child to the now ever developing artwork, the same drive and focus animates his swift hand and sharp stance.

Movement interwoven into a knot that loosens before the eyes.

Those words seem to encapsulate his art.

Louis Gallait | Romantic painter

Louis Gallait (1810-1887) was a Belgian painter.

He lay at the basis of a revival of history painting in Belgium.

He earned his reputation especially with the large painting of Charles V's abdication.

Gallait's works were esteemed because of their realism, faithfulness of the costumes and color composition of his paintings.

He was also a distinguished portrait painter.

Firmin Baes | A Master of Pastel painting

Firmin Baes (1874-1943) was a Belgian painter.

The son of the decorative painter Henri Baes, Firmin Baes was active as a portrait painter and a painter of still life subjects, figures, landscapes and interiors.

He studied under Léon Frédéric at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels between 1888-1894, and the elder artist’s influence is evident in many of Baes’s early paintings.

René Magritte: "The purpose of art is mystery"

"To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been".

"Essere surrealisti significa escludere dalla tua mente ogni ricordo di ciò che hai visto ed essere sempre alla ricerca di ciò che non è mai stato".

Johan Messely, 1953 | The Secret Gardens

Johan Messely is a painter from Belgium.

Johan Messely grew up in the artistic world of his father Paul Messely, also a painter, who served as his great example and motivation.

After his studies into technical engineering and later photography, Johan settled as a professional photographer in Menen, Belgium, but eventually decided to turn painting from being just a hobby into his main occupation.

Jacques Van Den Abeele, 1960 | Figurative sculptor

Jacques Van den Abeele, Belgian sculptor, is exhibited in galleries spread over Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States of America.

He realized also monumental sculptures for state orders.

For Jacques Van den Abeele, art is above all a quest for the essential foundations of existence, moving towards what lies behind appearances: feelings, emotions, fears.

René Magritte | The Blank Signature, 1965

"Everything that is visible hides something that is invisible" - René Magritte

In The Blank Signature, René Magritte (Belgian surrealist artist, 1898-1967) does what he does best: he takes our familiar world, breaks it into pieces, and then reassembles it…

As one of the leading figures of the surrealist movement in 1920s Paris, Magritte's approach mirrors one of the group’s fundamental principles.

The surrealist manifesto, a multi-page written declaration drawn up by André Breton in 1924, states their aim was to "liberate the mind by subverting rational thought and giving free reign to the unconscious".

René Magritte | The Blank Signature, 1965 | National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Great paintings from the Clark Art Institute

Adrien Moreau | Contemplation, 1873

The solitary woman in Moreau's painting gazes down toward a duck pond.

Her contemplative expression -and the painting's title- suggest that she has chosen this isolated spot to be alone with her thoughts.

The woman's fashionable city clothes have been painted with a degree of detail that contrasts with the more textured brushstrokes used to describe the surrounding landscape. | Source: © Clark Art Institute

Adrien Moreau (French, 1843-1906) | Contemplation, 1873 | Clark Art Institute

Juliette Wytsman | Impressionist painter

Juliette Wytsman (1866-1925) was a Belgian impressionist painter.

She was married to painter Rodolphe Wytsman.

Her paintings are in the collections of several museums in Belgium.

Wytsman was born as Juliette Trullemans on 14 July 1866 in Brussels, in Belgium.

She first studied under Henri Hendrickx at the Bischoffsheim Institute in Brussels.

Henri Evenepoel | Fauve painter

Henri-Jacques-Edouard Evenepoel was born on this day October 3, 1872, in Nice. The artist died at the age of 27, in 1899.

Evenepoel was a French-born Belgian artist, whose most important works are associated with Fauvism.

He first studied art in Brussels at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts between 1889 and 1890, and entered Paris's Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1892.

Evenepoel entered the atelier of Gustave Moreau in 1893, which put him in contact with Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, Albert Marquet, Edgar Maxence, Charles Milcendeau and Léon Printemps.

Emile Claus | Il pittore Luminista

Oggi si celebra il 175° compleanno della figura più brillante del Luminismo, il belga Emile Claus (27 settembre 1849 - 14 giugno 1924).

Dalla sua casa idilliaca lungo il fiume Leie, Claus dipinse capolavori che continuano ad affascinare gli amanti dell'arte in tutto il mondo.

Émile Claus nacque in un piccolo villaggio delle Fiandre occidentali, sulle rive della Lys, sedicesimo figlio di una famiglia di commercianti rurali.

Konstantinos Kavafis | Muri / Walls / Τείχη

Senza preavviso, né pietà, senza nessun pudore,

muri massicci ed alti mi hanno costruito intorno.

E sono qui che mi dispero e per il mio dolore

non penso ad altro: e mi rodo il cervello tutto il giorno.

René Magritte

James Ensor | The Oyster Eater / La mangiatrice di ostriche, 1882

"The Oyster Eater" is an oil painting executed in 1882 by the Belgian Expressionist artist James Ensor which is now in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp.

The genre work depicts the artist's sister Mitche eating oysters on her own at a well-appointed table replete with flowers, plates, wine and table linen.

Art critics were unapologetic about James Ensor's "The Oyster Eater".

"Offensive! Immoral! Vice!"

Yet there is not a streak of nudity to be seen, nor intimately entwined bodies.

So what was the problem?

Anna Boch | Post-impressionist painter

Anna Boch participated in the Neo-Impressionist movement.

Her early works used a Pointillist technique, but she is best known for her Impressionist style which she adopted for most of her career.

A pupil of Isidore Verheyden, she was influenced by Théo van Rysselberghe whom she met in the artistic group, Les XX.

Anna-Rosalie Boch (1848-1936), known as Anna, was a Belgian painter, art collector, and the only female member of the artistic group, Les XX.

Frantz Charlet | Impressionist painter

Frantz Charlet (1862-1928) was a Belgian painter, etcher and lithographer.

An Impressionist, he was one of the founding members in 1882, with James Ensor and Théo van Rysselberghe (1862-1926) of the group Les XX.

It is one of the first painters in Belgium to look for brighter colours and a spontaneous touch, thus becoming closer French Impressionists.

Charlet studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels from 1872-1873 and again from 1876-1881; among his fellow pupils there were Eugène Broerman, François-Joseph Halkett, Théo van Rysselberghe and Rodolphe Wytsman, and his teacher was Jean-François Portaels.

Théo Van Rysselberghe and Les XX

Théo van Rysselberghe was one of the prominent co-founders of the Belgian artistic circle Les XX on 28 October 1883.

This was a circle of young radical artists, under the patronage, as secretary, of the Brussels jurist and art lover Octave Maus (1856-1919).

They rebelled against the outmoded academism of the time and the prevailing artistic standards.

Maya Angelou / René Magritte | I know why the caged bird sings, 1969

The free bird leaps

on the back of the wind

and floats downstream

till the current ends

and dips his wings

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

Jean-François Portaels | A Sicilian bride, 1861

Jean-François Portaels | A Sicilian bride, 1861 | Royal Collection of the United Kingdom

Three-quarter length, facing half left, her head turned to the viewer; seated on a stone bench; she wears a white dress with red trim and flower petals embroidered on the lower sleeves, and a black sleevless garment; with loosely arranged lace headgear; holding a rosary.

Eugène Laermans | Genre painter

Eugène Jules Joseph Baron Laermans (1864-1940) was a Belgian painter.

He was born in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek. At the age of eleven, he contracted meningitis, which left him deaf and nearly mute (although some sources say he was born deaf).

This concentrated his attention on his sense of sight, and led to his decision to become a painter.

He enrolled at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in 1887, where he studied with Jean-François Portaels and was a great admirer of the paintings of Félicien Rops.

Léon Frédéric | Symbolist painter

Léon-Henri-Marie Frédéric (1856-1940) was a Belgian Symbolist painter.

His earliest paintings joined Christian mysticism with pantheistic themes, while his later works increasingly reflected social concerns.

Much of his work also shows the influence of fifteenth and sixteenth century Flemish art and Renaissance painting styles.