Emile Claus - Prince of luminism

It was already clear on my visits to Deinze this summer:  Deinze celebrated this year Emile Clause who passed away 100 years ago.  All electricity cabins downtown picture some of his paintings now and I love it!  

My mom went to the opening of a big exhibition that'd run for a couple of months and I was convinced I'd make it easily once as well, given that I go to Deinze biweekly.  But in the end it wasn't so easy to make it before the exhibition ended as there is always a time constraint.  But I managed to get tickets in the last week as one of the 120000 visitors that saw the exhibition. 

My mom had warned me of the crowds and for that reason I had not taken the children along, but I didn't anticipate standing in line outside around opening time on a Sunday morning. Ugh. It was too crowded and we could only shuffle slowly into the first hall where a volunteer hushed us to the back of the exhibition to watch that first where there was less people. 





I enjoyed the older works which I knew less, with the more clair-obscur subjects and seemingly a fun interest in naughty punished children. 




But I knew his landscapes of my town best, with the Leie river and the cow fields where I used to bike along in summer.  Sometimes in summer I dropped by in the summer in the museums in Sint-Martens-Latem (Dhont-Daenens, Gust De Smet, Leon De Smet, ...) but I also know the big masterpiece of the Bietenoogst well, with the Mudel museum hall built for this piece.  I love the roughness & realism of the farmer's life depicted. 
This time I discovered the garderner's portrait that I loved very much, with his rough face and big hands and feet depicting the rough life but in gorgeous light. 













For the first time I saw some works from Claus painted during his exile in London during the first World War.   If someone had told me these are Monet's I would have believed it. 







Claus next to Gust De Smet

Gent

Some more of my home town heritage: the children's toys and stroller factories. 




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