“as the sun chants, Claus feasts on it with his eyes.”
Op de fiets met Emile
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Night@themuseum
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Emile Claus
a year of light
2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Emile Claus (1849-1924) – our country’s foremost impressionist. It is immediately a double anniversary, as he was also born 175 years ago. Emile Claus enjoyed great fame even in his time as the ‘Master of Astene’ or ‘Prince of Luminism’. With the key work ‘Beet Harvest’ and many other works from his oeuvre, Emile Claus is inextricably linked to the museum’s collection and to the region of the Leie region.
The city of Deinze and the mudel – Museum of Deinze and the Leie region have therefore declared 2024 as the Claus year.
Throughout 2024, the city will host various activities highlighting Emile Claus as our country’s most important impressionist. These include an exclusive Valentine’s Day dinner, cycling and walking routes, the issue of an official stamp series, day packages and, as the apotheosis, the exhibition ‘Emile Claus. Prince of Luminism’ which opens on 27 September 2024, not coincidentally the artist’s birth date. The prestigious exhibition will bring together the artist’s dozens of masterpieces. The finest paintings from all periods of his oeuvre will be shown, thanks in part to the exceptional cooperation of the Museum of Fine Arts of Ghent and through important loans from various public and private collections.
Emile Claus was born in 1849 in Sint-Eloois-Vijve, and after his marriage in 1886 to Charlotte Dufaux, he settled permanently in Astene, now a borough of Deinze. His best-known work ‘Beet Harvest’, painted a stone’s throw from his home, was donated to the town of Deinze by his widow in 1942, and was the direct reason for setting up a municipal museum in the so-called Savery building. In the current museum building, it hangs as a showpiece in the room of the same name, and the painting has long been included in the Flemish Community’s List of Top Items. The museum holds a total of about 20 paintings by Claus and more than 100 drawings by his hand.
