IMAGE DETAILS

Harold t’Kint de Roodenbeke

Englebert Van Anderlecht (Brussels, 1918-1961)
Rome 1, 1960
Oil on canvas
150 x 122 cm
Signed, dated and titled on the reverse
Inventory number 664 on the reverse
Provenance: private collection, Brussels
Literature: Serge Goyens de Heusch, Englebert Van Anderlecht, Mercator, 1998, ill. p. 207; Englebert Van Anderlecht, exhibition catalogue, MRBAB, Brussels, 1990, ill. n° 79
Exhibitions: Galerij M.A.S. Astene, march-april 1969; Museum van Deinze, Englebert Van Anderlecht, March-May 1990; MRBAB, Englebert Van Anderlecht, Brussels, 1990

In the shadow of war and its aftermath, Englebert Van Anderlecht began his career as an artist in the early 1940s, right in the midst of the global conflict. After this tragedy, the “young Belgian painting” movement brought together a group of artists in a state of euphoria. Their style was colorful and optimistic - a form of rebirth, a way to forget and move toward new horizons.

By the late 1940s, there was a desire to recreate new rules - or rather, to affirm that there were no longer any rules. Creativity alone mattered and had to prevail over any form of academicism. Thus, Englebert Van Anderlecht turned toward abstraction at the end of the 1940s and definitively embraced it by the mid-1950s. His palette grew stronger, his tones deeper, and he adhered to a form of abstract expressionism.

This style of painting reflected a worldwide desire for rupture and emancipation. In the United States, the tone was set by Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline, from gestural to abstract expressionism. In France, a new generation emerged with Nicolas de Staël, Pierre Soulages, Simon Hantaï, and Judith Reigl. Belgium was no exception, with Antoine Mortier and Englebert Van Anderlecht, the latter being the most committed to the path of free or abstract expressionism.

“I believe it is essential that there be men who do not accept established rules,
who do not believe that truth is forever what a few moral leaders have decided it to be,
who see that life is not merely the sum of all discoveries made so far.
In this, I see a promise of freedom.
We believe that everything remains to be done, that our earth is young,
that we are not old men sunk into routine, and that the marvelous still awaits us tomorrow.”
- Text by Englebert Van Anderlecht, 1960

Within this context, the large and striking canvas, Rome I, belongs to the period of maturity and recognition of this artist, who died prematurely in 1961 at the age of 43. The brush or paintbrush seems to whirl across the canvas like a ballet. The tones are deep, intense, applied with palpable strength and energy, while the final result bursts forth across the space. The work then takes on its full dimension, filling the surface with unmatched power - one of the finest works by this essential figure of Belgian painting.