Arthur Navel

ARTHUR NAVEL (Antwerp, 1881-1931)
"Young woman with flowers and water".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the upper right corner.
Measurements: 78 x 81 cm; 104 x 104 cm (frame).
This type of scenes starring lonely women seated behind a table, became widely popular during the nineteenth century, particularly thanks to Impressionism, whose school focused on the representation of that archetype. However, in this particular case the young woman does not seem to be alone, nor is she melancholic, but thanks to details such as the roses, the glass full of water, or the peach on the table, added to the use of a palette of bright and powdered shades, the piece acquires an atmosphere of innocence and youth.
Arthur Navez was a Belgian painter who belonged to the Brabant Fauvism movement, a regional variant of the Fauvist movement that developed in Brabant, characterized by the expressive use of color and formal simplification, but tinged with a more intimate lyricism and a more restrained atmosphere than that of French Fauvism.
Navez received his artistic training at two of the most prestigious institutions in his country: first at the Académie royale des beaux-arts in Antwerp, and later at the Académie royale des beaux-arts in Brussels. This solid academic training provided him with a rigorous technical base that, however, did not limit his openness to the emerging aesthetic avant-garde of his time. In 1900 he moved to Paris, where he lived for several years. He was a student of the renowned academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme in his studio at the École des Beaux-Arts.
At the end of 1907 he returned to Brussels, where the following year he participated in an exhibition organized by the artistic collective Le Sillon, a progressive group. In this context, Navez forged close ties with like-minded artists, among them the Dutch painter Jean Laudy, who became a friend.
His painting is distinguished by a refined and expressive use of color, as well as by a special attention to composition and lighting effects. In his works, mirrors, reflections and plays of light occupy an important place, generating introspective atmospheres and an almost poetic dimension that transcends the purely visual.
During the 1920s, Arthur Navez expanded his field of action to the world of theater, working as a scenic decorator. He also ventured into the nascent world of cinema, participating as artistic director in the making of the film Le Carillon de minuit (1922), directed by Jacques de Baroncelli with the collaboration of future filmmakers René Clair and Henri Chomette. This incursion into the seventh art underlines his openness to modern forms of expression and his ability to adapt to new visual languages.