Angèle

Filled with a strange, yet powerful sense of turbulent energy, Gustave Van de Woestyne’s Angèle is a striking study of expression, capturing the mysterious woman’s unguarded emotions as she glances up at the viewer. While sensitive to the latest developments among the Parisian avant-garde, as well as the evolution of Symbolism and Flemish Expressionism, Van de Woestyne boldly forged his own distinctive artistic idiom, combining a multitude of unexpected influences and radical ideas into a painterly style that defied categorisation. While he also remained intensely interested in the art of the past, particularly the Italian Quattrocento and the medieval art and imagery of Northern Europe, it was in his devotion to his own internal landscape that Van de Woestyne’s originality lay. Believing art to be the ‘externalisation’ of all the feelings and sentiments that moved him, many of his paintings record deeply personal inner experiences and visions plucked from the depths of his own imagination. Painted in 1913, Angèle emerged in the aftermath of Van de Woestyne’s trip to Florence that May, where he was enchanted by the paintings of Botticelli and Fra Angelico. The graphic delicacy and thin layers of pigment of the painting recalls the effects of egg tempera, while the composition’s gold background evokes traditional iconography, specifically the format of Byzantine religious icons. However, Angèle remains a decidedly modern subject: her expressive, almost aggressive stare suggests a powerful interiority, while the unusual viewpoint and cropping of her form allows the artist to isolate her within the composition, directing all our focus to her facial features and imbuing her with an unmistakably commanding presence. Although Van de Woestyne was known to paint his friends and family, he also frequently depicted typologies drawn from his memories and imagination, creating entirely invented characters who then became a vehicle for his artistic vision. Angèle is most likely one such creation, a character conjured from Van de Woestyne’s mind, who then became a vehicle for his rich, artistic musings.