Gustaaf Sorel (17 January 1905, in
Ostend
Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...
– 14 May 1981, in Ostend) was a Belgian painter and
draughtsman known for his representations of gloomy people and bleak street sights.
[ Available online]
link
Sorel depicted his folkish surroundings with loose and fluid line work of his own synthetic painting method. He underwent several figurative influences like
expressionism
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
,
cubism
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture.
Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...
and
constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...
, but, mostly stubbornly pursued his own style.
His city and street depictions with ashen facades radiate the oppressive sadness of the abandoned streets and empty stalls, of the city and her inhabitants. He had an obsession for a secretive, pressing silence, but even in those dark corners, there is no anxiety-inducing mood.
Usually a soft light radiates from a window, door or gate. a play of the light by which the mood becomes more intense and gives rise to many contrasts.
Gallery
File:Panoramisch landschap.jpg , ''Panoramic Landscape'', gouache
Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouach ...
on paper, circa 1936
File:Gustaaf Sorel.Dame met blauwe hoed.JPG , ''Lady with blue hat'', watercolour
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the ...
File:Zeedijk.jpg , ''Seawall'', India ink
India ink (British English: Indian ink; also Chinese ink) is a simple black or coloured ink once widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for drawing and outlining, especially when inking comic books and comic strips. In ...
on paper, 1939
File:Doodsmasker.jpg , Death mask
A death mask is a likeness (typically in wax or plaster cast) of a person's face after their death, usually made by taking a cast or impression from the corpse. Death masks may be mementos of the dead or be used for creation of portraits. The m ...
of Gustaaf Sorel by sculptor
References
External links
*
1905 births
1980 deaths
20th-century Belgian painters
{{Belgium-painter-stub