Project for the cover of 'Le sculpteur de masques' by Fernand Crommelynck

Fernand Crommelynck called upon Léon Spilliaert to illustrate the cover of his play Le Sculpteur de Masques. Created in 1907, this project for the cover is an initial version of the eponymous illustration kept at the Ixelles Museum in Brussels and is of importance for several reasons. Firstly, this project dates from Spilliaert’s greatest period and demonstrates his virtuosity. Secondly, it is a testimony to the unique collaboration between artists, writers and the rich cultural life of the period. Thanks to the Marie-Jeanne Dauchy Fund’s intervention, the work has now been entrusted by the King Baudouin Foundation to the Prints Department of the Royal Library of Belgium.

A art work for the cover

Léon Spilliaert created this project for the cover of the play in 1907 by directly interpreting the title of Fernand Crommelynck’s work. Executed on paper, in Indian ink, coloured pencils and graphite, the illustration shows the sketched silhouette of a man seated at a counter, with his head in his hands. Behind him are four rows of masques or faces with various expressions. A slightly open door disturbs the centre of the scene, extending the fleeting perspective of the counter. On the lower right, Spilliaert has signed with the letters LSp. Spilliaert also uses a stylized lettering to cite the author’s name, the title of the play and the publisher’s name. This lettering, combined with the almost monochrome architecture of the scene presented, reinforces the expressionist and tormented atmosphere that is typical of the artist’s work at the beginning of the 20th century.

Léon Spilliaert and literature

The artist Léon Spilliaert was born in Ostend in 1881 and from the beginning of the 20th century created works that marked a symbiosis between the Symbolism of the late 19th century and a certain Expressionist modernity. As a close friend of the poet Emile Verhaeren, a spiritual father to whom he had been introduced by the publisher Léon Deman, the young Spilliaert was fascinated by the classical literature of his period. Spilliaert had already been approached by Deman to illustrate the three volumes of Maurice Maeterlinck’s work Théâtre (which was also acquired by the King Baudouin Foundation, via the Eliane Vercaempt Fund in 2022). 1907 was an artistically prolific year for Spilliaert, a year in which he painted views of the sea front and the beaches, in which one can again see the ‘stretched’ perspective that he used in his composition for Fernand Crommelynck’s Sculpteur de Masques.

The many faces of Crommelynck

Author Fernand Crommelynck was born in Paris in 1886. An important figure in French-language literature, Crommelynck was active in many fields: as a playwright and novelist, but also as an actor, journalist, theatre director and scriptwriter. He lived between Paris and Brussels, a city he especially loved, along with his regular trips to Ostend. For the anecdote, it was Emile Verhaeren who signed the preface of the play, complimenting the first version of Sculpteur de Masques in 1906! This literary work is characteristic of Crommelynck’s plays: action, intense suspense and a psychological mise en abyme for the characters. Such a universe was no less than the perfect inspiration for Léon Spilliaert. The artist proposed a second project for the play’s cover illustration, but this was not accepted, either by the playwright or by the publisher. This second version is today kept at the Museum of Ixelles in Brussels. In this latter version, the seated man has been replaced by the silhouettes of a man and a woman embracing and seen from behind.

The Marie-Jeanne Dauchy Fund

The Marie-Jeanne Dauchy Fund is dedicated to the safeguard, protection, restoration and promotion of the cultural heritage of Brussels. It is thanks to this Fund that the project for the cover of the play was acquired, with the aim of conserving it in the Print Department of the Royal Library of Belgium.