Self-Portrait on a Blue Background

1907

Léon Spilliaert
Belgian, 1881-1946

Status: On View, Gallery 127A
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Léon Spilliaert
Title: Self-Portrait on a Blue Background
Place: Belgium (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1907
Medium: India Ink, color pencil, pastel, and colored chalk on paper, mounted on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed and dated lower right: “1907 / L. Spilliaert”
Dimensions: 73 × 58.7 cm (28 3/4 × 23 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial and Regenstein endowment funds; Prints and Drawings Discretionary Fund; Margaret Fisher and Suzanne Searle Dixon endowment funds; Prints and Drawings Purchase Fund; Elizabeth Gott Templeton Endowment Fund; Regenstein Acquisition Fund; Sara R. Shorey Endowed Acquisition and Celia and David Hilliard endowment funds
Reference Number: 2025.212

Michael Palmer, D’Ensor à Magritte: Art belge 1880–1940 (Brussels: Racine, 1994), p. 126.
Anne Adriaens-Pannier, Léon Spilliaert: From the Depths of the Soul (Brussels: Ludion, 2020), pp. 72 and 84 (ill.).

Paris, Musée-Galerie de la Seita, Spilliaert: oeuvres de jeunesse (1900–1918), Dec. 18, 1997–Feb. 28, 1998, pp. 132–33 (ill.).
Antwerp, Ronny Van de Velde, Léon Spilliaert, Dec. 14, 1998–Jan. 24, 1999, cat. 31 pp. 97 (ill.) and 102.
Salzburg, Rupertinum, Museum für modern kunst, Eros and Death: Belgian Symbolism, July 25–Oct. 10, 1999, p. 141 (ill.).
Tokyo, Bridgestone Museum of Art, Léon Spilliaert, Apr. 9-June 6, 2003, cat. 3, p. 44-45 (ill.); also Himeji, Himeji City Museum of Art, June 14–July 27, 2003, and Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aug. 5–Sept. 23, 2003.
Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Léon Spilliaert: A Free Spirit, Sept. 22, 2006–Feb. 4, 2007, cat. 148, pp. 138–39 (ill.); also Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Mar. 6–May 27, 2007.
Mons, Beaux-Arts Mons, Signes des temps: Oeuvres visionnaires d’avant 1914, Aug. 22–Nov. 23, 2014.
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Léon Spilliaert, Aug. 5–Sept. 20, 2020, cat. 76, pp. 22 and 149 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Strange Realities: The Symbolist Imagination”, October 4, 2025 - January 5, 2026.

Elie Burthoul (1875–1948), Brussels; by descent; sold, Galerie Georges Giroux, Brussels, Mar. 11, 1950, lot 16. Dr. Jan Maniewski (born 1933), Antwerp. Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, Antwerp, by 1998 [Antwerp 1998]; sold to Kredietbank Luxembourg (later rebranded KBL European Private Bankers and then Quintet Private Bank), Brussels, 2000; sold to a private collector, Brussels, 2020; sold to David Lévy & Associés, Brussels, 2025; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2025.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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