Project Description

Oil on panel

Dimensions : 38 cm x 46cm

Signed lower left C.Leonard, dated 37 (1937)

Intérieur rustique

Charlie Leonard (Saint-Gilles 1894-Uccle 1953)

Landscape painter, of interiors, figures and still lifes. The painter took evening classes at the Brussels Academy (Alfred Bastien).

He became Alfred Bastien's collaborator for the "Panorama of Congo" at the Universal Exhibition in Ghent in 1913.

Voluntary from 1914, he works at the front as part of the Artistic Section. But nothing is known of a possible participation in the various exhibitions relating to the conflict..

He will work after the war with Alfred Bastien at the “Panorama de l’Yser” :

royal support

From its genesis, the Panorama de Yser project is crowned with royal support. The King's repeated visits to the Yser front and his passage through the makeshift workshop that Bastien occupies along the lines of the Belgian front, gradually germinate the idea of ​​a great work relating the courage and tenacity of the Belgian and allied armed forces. It seems that it is the King who, passing through Nieuwpoort, suggests to Bastien the iconographic vision of the monumental work to illustrate the defining moments of life at the front. The Panorama of the Yser would therefore become the standard of Belgian courage and tenacity, joint efforts with the Allies and also a potential showcase of any temptation to disguise history.

Coming out of the war

Bastien has already sketched the panorama in one-tenth format, that is 10,50 meters long on 1,50 meter high. It is for Bastien to take his brushes. Helped by three artists, volunteers from war like him, Charly Leonardo (1894-1953), Charles Swyncop (1895-1970) and Jeff Bonheure (1893-1979), Alfred Bastien and his acolytes tackle a gigantic work.

“A major work ! The web of 115 meters on 14 meters is mounted and sewn on a metal hanger. The huge expanse of beige canvas encircles the painter who, from a mobile tower 7 floors, high of 14 meters and fixed on rails, can start to postpone his sketches. Bastien takes charge of the soldiers in the foreground while his friends tackle the landscape and the sky. After 340 working days, the 1.700 square meters of the panorama are completed”. Almost a year of hard work, to embed in Eternity all the horror of these infamous few days : Nieuport ! Dixmude ! Ypres ! Alfred Bastien.

Travel to the Netherlands, in France, in Spain, there very often. Then brightens his palette. Represents in Belgium the landscapes around the red Cloître and Uccle, as well as farmhouse interiors in Campine. Married the painter Luce Versluys in 1937.

Sources: http://users.skynet.be/spybel/leonard_charly.htm , http://www.rouge-cloitre.be/fr/accueil.html

Another work by a Belgian painter is offered to you by the Gallery.