From 3 June to 14 August 2026, Patrick Derom Gallery in Brussels presents Through Half-Open Doors, an exhibition devoted to the interiors and still lifes of Léon Spilliaert (1881–1946) — a discreet yet essential aspect of the artist’s oeuvre. Bringing together an exceptional selection of works, including several rarely exhibited pieces and others shown publicly for the first time, the exhibition offers new insight into Spilliaert’s singular vision through his depictions of domestic interiors and everyday objects.
Curated by Anne Adriaens-Pannier and Edouard Derom, the exhibition is accompanied by a major publication produced in collaboration with the Belgian publisher Hannibal Books. The publication includes essays by leading specialists, among them Anne Adriaens-Pannier, Edouard Derom, Stefan Huygebaert and Marie-Noëlle Grison.
When thinking of Léon Spilliaert, one most readily recalls his haunting self-portraits and enigmatic seascapes — works that unquestionably rank among the masterpieces of Belgian modern art. Yet his interiors have long remained overlooked and are still seldom represented in major museum collections. Far from constituting a secondary body of work, these compositions reveal a fundamental dimension of Spilliaert’s artistic language.
In these quiet scenes, Spilliaert transforms ordinary environments into spaces of contemplation and psychological resonance. Empty rooms, familiar corners and modest objects are rendered with remarkable restraint, yet charged with an almost palpable presence. Silence permeates these works. The absence of the human figure heightens perception and invites the viewer into a world where the visible becomes introspective, even metaphysical.
Through Half-Open Doors follows the gallery’s acclaimed 2024 exhibition and publication, Léon Spilliaert: errer dans le silence, which presented an exceptional group of works from the collection of Johan van Rossum, the artist’s grandson. Together, these initiatives reflect Patrick Derom Gallery’s longstanding commitment to the study, preservation and promotion of Spilliaert’s work — an artist who has occupied a central place in the gallery’s programme since its founding in 1986.
Synopsis
Often associated with the Belgian Symbolist movement, Léon Spilliaert (Ostend 1881 – Brussels 1946) is in fact more of a free spirit who refused to introduce any notion of idealism or symbolism into his art. In his early responses to literary texts, deepening their mood, he revisited the representation of women in art, and immersed himself in painful introspection, through a series of strikingly honest self-portraits. An essentially solitary artist, he let his gaze wander through a very private world that he both experienced and analyzed.
Like many of his contemporaries, he paid close attention to the spaces in which he lived but took the practice much further. He expressed a particular desire to convey a more profound vision of everyday reality. In the footsteps of Xavier Mellery (1845–1903), he sought to give form to animism, attributing a soul to spaces and objects. Invariably, a climate of silence reigns in Spilliaert’s rooms and interiors, devoid of human presence. He isolates them in timeless, fragmentary compositions that reflect a penchant for quasi-photographic viewpoints and unusual angles. Spilliaert uses a variety of different perspectives to create serial motifs, returning to them time and time again; the living- and workspaces within the family home, a fireside corner, a library corner, the conservatory, the silent piano, the burgeoning house plants.
Around 1909, during a period of illness, Spilliaert found new material for plain, simple still-life arrangements in the objects that populated his sickroom. From time to time, with a touch of theatrical exaggeration, he created small, staged ensembles: a carafe, a teapot, a cup, their forms echoing one another, their textures alive with light. But most often, he captured the immutability of objects upon which his lively gaze alights purely by chance, simple bottles and flasks, a seashell, a pair of discarded gloves. In his mind’s eye, these objects take on a life of their own. Spilliaert described this process: sometimes, quite unexpectedly, through a form of intellectual displacement, an item throws off its name, its objective meaning, and reveals itself in new and striking ways — an image dissolved by a state of consciousness that borders on the surreal. In this sense, Spilliaert stands at the dawn of a new modernity.
Spilliaert never subverts the viewer’s reading of the reality of the things he portrays. His rigorously simplified, pared-down compositions, and the enigmatic play of shadows are highly evocative. Through his handling of the medium — supple washes of liquid ink, occasional touches of color — he transforms objects and strips them of their material essence. Their outlines remain, but emptied of substance, they are imbued with spiritual significance. In his constant quest for the reality of beings and objects, Léon Spilliaert saw the potential of these fleeting transformations and strove to capture their transcendental quality.
Practical information
Léon Spilliaert
\u200bThrough half-open doors
\u200b3 June to 14 August
\u200b
\u200bPress conference: 2 June, 11am
\u200bPatrick Derom Gallery
\u200bRue aux Laines 1, 1000 Brussels
About Patrick Derom Gallery
Located in the heart of the Petit Sablon in Brussels, the gallery was founded in 1986 by Patrick Derom and has, from the outset, distinguished itself by a rigorous and passionate approach to the presentation of carefully selected works. In 2023, Edouard Derom joined the gallery, helping to strengthen its expertise and ensure the continuity of its artistic commitment.
The gallery's programme covers the period from around 1880 to the present day, with a particular focus on fin de siècle and modern movements from Symbolism to Pop Art, and includes artists such as Léon Spilliaert and James Ensor, as well as major contemporary figures such as Ai Weiwei and Fabienne Verdier.
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