DEGLUME Henry (Henri) Désiré Ghislain Joseph was born on 28 December 1865 in Gerpinnes, the son of DEGLUME Emile blacksmith, farrier and of EVRARD Anastasie. He grew up on the corner of Avenue Astrid and Place du Perron. He is the youngest of 4 children. Destined by his father to study to become a priest, he entered the Petit Séminaire de Bonne Espérance where he refused to study. He wanted to draw and paint. In secret, he stole fabrics, canvases, pencils, etc. and painted everything in sight. His father took him on as an apprentice in his forge, but realised that his son wanted to paint. He sent him to live with his sister in Antwerp, where he attended classes at the Academy. He then joined the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Namur and Théodore Baron, its director since 1868. Théodore Baron was an impressionist and precursor of the new Belgian school of painting. Influenced by the latter, but independent, DEGLUME Henry quickly forgets his masters and turns to nature. Under the influence of SEURAT (1859-1891), a follower of the first stage of Impressionism, Divisionist and Pointillist, himself influenced by by SISLEY (1839-1899, impressionist), Henry found his art but, always keen to be independent, an innovator and forerunner of our line of impressionist landscape painters in Wallonia, he first tried his hand at pointillism. In 1894 he worked for AJ HEYMANS (1839-1921). This Belgian landscape painter, adept at watercolours and miniatures, and regarded as one of the main Belgian Impressionist painters, was to have a strong influence on the painting of DEGLUME. He returned to his native Gerpinnes, for which he had great admiration, and gradually abandoned pointillism (an artistic movement in painting and a pictorial technique using small areas of juxtaposed colour rather than mixtures of coloured pastes) for impressionism (characterised by a tendency to note fleeting impressions, the mobility of phenomena, fluid movements rather than the stable appearance of things). He roamed the paths, roads and fields of Gerpinnes with easel and palette knife. He paints what he sees. There is little, if any, human presence in his work. Trees, on the other hand, feature prominently. For him, trees are a means of expressing life. His paintings speak of poetry and joie de vivre. Many of his works can be found in Gerpinnes.
Large-format reproductions of his works are located in the various places that inspired him (a tree, a pond, a coron, etc.), allowing us to compare the landscape as seen by the artist with the landscape as seen by the viewer. DEGLUME Henry and today.
https://www.gerpinnes.be/loisirs/tourisme/les-sentiers-dhenri-deglume : (Itinerary for a stroll to discover the places painted by the artist) DEGLUMEA tour that compares his work with the current landscape). DEGLUME did not frequent the salons mondains, but surrounded himself with many other artists, painters, poets, writers, ...
He was the master of the well-known local painter, PAULUS Pierre (1881-1951, Impressionist from the Charleroi region). He died on 22 May 1940, unmarried.
Sources :
https://www.gerpinnes.be/ma-commune/services-communaux/sports-tourisme-culture/henri-deglumehttp://www.fagnet.be/Gerpinnes_ok/ger_DEGLUME%20Henry/DEGLUME%20Henry_index.htm
http://www.fagnet.be/Gerpinnes_ok/ger_DEGLUME%20Henry/DEGLUME%20Henry%20de%20Bernard%20MICHAUX_3.JPG
http://www.galeriedupistoletdor.com/gdpo/Deglumehenri.html#:~:text=Henri%20Deglume%20(Gerpinnes%2C%201865%20%2D%201940)&text=Formation%20de%20courte%20dur%C3%A9e%20%C3%A0,retir%C3%A9%20dans%20son%20village%20natal.
https://www.gerpinnes.be/loisirs/tourisme/les-sentiers-dhenri-deglume
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9odore_Baron
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Seurat
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sisley
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Paulus
Myriam Brys
Birth certificates
Death certificate
