Rachel Baes (1 August 1912 – 8 June 1983) was a Belgian

surrealist 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 ...

painter 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 ...

. The growth of the

women's movement The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and women. Such issues are women's ...

in the late 20th century led to renewed interest in female artists and brought greater appreciation of their work. In 2002 the

Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp ( Dutch: ''Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen''; KMSKA) is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium, founded in 1810, that houses a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the fourteenth to t ...

dedicated an exhibition to Baes and the female French-Belgian surrealist painter

Jane Graverol Jane Graverol (1905–1984) was a Belgian surrealist painter of French extraction. Life Jane Graverol was born in Ixelles on 18 December 1905 to Alexandre Graverol and Anne-Marie Lagadec. After a traditional education, she enrolled in the Brussels ...

.Janssens, Marianne (ed.) ''Gekooid verlangen: Jane Graverol, Rachel Baes en het surrealisme: [tentoonstelling, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, van 6 april tot 23 juni 2002'', with contributions by Marianne JANSSENS, Patrick SPRIET; Sofie VAN LOO, Xavier CANONNE, Jacqueline CHENIEUX-GENDRON, Ludion (2002), Amsterdam; Gent

Early life and education

Baes was born on 1 August 1912 in Brussels to the painter, writer and art historian Émile Baes and his wife. Her father was a successful artist who was mainly known for his eroticized female nudes executed in a late Impressionism, Impressionist style.Émile Baes, ''A lady in front of a mirror''
at Jean Moust Rachel Baes was encouraged in her artistic efforts from an early age, although she never studied art formally.

Career

In 1929, at age 17, Baes achieved her first recognition as an artist when she exhibited works at the Salon des Indépendants in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. There she was one of the members of the Surrealist group around

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...

. She came to know

André Breton André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

, Irène Hamoir, and

Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...

. Between 1936 and 1940, Baes had an affair with

Joris Van Severen Joris Van Severen (19 July 1894 – 20 May 1940) was a Belgian politician and ideologue of the Flemish Movement as well as a Pan-Netherlander. A leading figure of pre-World War II Flemish nationalism, he co-founded the extreme-right group V ...

, the leader of

Verdinaso Verdinaso (''Verbond van Dietsche Nationaal-Solidaristen'', ), sometimes rendered as Dinaso, was a small fascist political movement active in Belgium and, to a lesser extent, the Netherlands between 1931 and 1941. Verdinaso was founded by Jori ...

, a far-right political party in Belgium. On the morning of the invasion of Belgium by German troops on 10 May 1940 Van Severen was arrested together with a number of other persons who were considered a danger to Belgium's national security. The arrested men were handed over to the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...

and incarcerated near

Abbeville Abbeville (; ; ) is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is the of one of the arrondissements of Somme. Located on the river Somme, it was the capital of Ponthieu. Geography Location A ...

in France. On 20 May 1940, when the advancing German Army cut off the area, a group of French soldiers killed a number of the Belgian prisoners under their care including Van Severen, an event remembered as the Abbeville massacre.Philip Rees, Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890, Simon & Schuster, 1991 Baes published in 1965 a biography of Van Severen under the title ''Joris Van Severen, une âme''. From 1962, Baes retired from public life and lived alone in ''Huize 't Haentje'', now known as Hotel Malleberg, in

Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...

where she painted local subjects. She died in Bruges and was buried in

, alongside Van Severen.

Early life and education

Career

References

Further reading