Jan Verdoodt (1908–1980) came from Sint-Pieters-Jette in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. He attended the Academy of

Molenbeek-Saint-Jean (French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ), often simply called Molenbeek, is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the western p ...

from 1926, under Frans Persoons, where he was attracted equally by Realism (in the work of

Eugène Laermans Eugène Jules Joseph Baron Laermans (22 October 1864 – 22 February 1940) was a Belgian painter. Life He was born in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean. At the age of eleven, he contracted meningitis, which left him deaf and nearly mute (although some sour ...

) and

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

(in Magritte's paintings). He developed his own style by combining these two schools, creating 'a kind of

magic realism Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical re ...

in which dream and reality, woman and nature, were intimately bound together'.

Career

He began work as an apprentice in a

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

studio and became a photo-engraver. He produced

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

self-portrait Self-portraits are Portrait painting, portraits artists make of themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, the practice of self-portraiture only gaining momentum in the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century ...

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

s and

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

s, and was a founding member of the Cercle Jecta in 1938 (Magritte was also a member). His work has been acquired by the Belgian state and by the province of Brabant, and he has given his name to a road in

Jette Jette (; ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the north-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Ganshoren, Koekelberg, and Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, as well as the Fl ...

and to a path in the Parc Baudouin.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Verdoodt, Jan 1908 births 1980 deaths 20th-century Belgian painters People from Jette

Career

See also

External links