Arthur LAUBLIN (Mons, 1900 – Blaregnies, 1987) Ascension Lunaire

A Belgian artist ripe for rediscovery, Arthur Laublin, a painter of allegorical scenes and portraits, draftsman, and decorator, began his studies at the Mons Academy in 1919 under Émile Motte, Alfred Duriau, and Louis Greuze. He completed his training at the Brussels Academy with Jean Delville, Constant Montald, and Anto-Carte, three important Symbolist painters who exerted a profound influence on him. From 1925 to 1961, he taught graphic arts at the Mons Academy and was a member of the Bon Vouloir group. From 1914 onward, the Mons group established itself as a young circle, open to all innovative trends and artistic techniques. While not a member, a second artistic movement influenced Laublin's career: the Nervia group, a highly influential Walloon pictorial movement in the 1930s whose name refers to the Nervii, an ancient Gallic tribe opposed to Caesar. Endowed with evident technical skill, these Walloon artists rejected the avant-garde at all costs, advocating instead a harmonious and idealistic art, championing a figuration poised between dream and reality. The young Laublin, with this idealistic painting, aligns himself with the Nervian tradition, as exemplified by our lunar woman. Draped in a Botticelli-esque floral veil with Magritte-like bird-blues, this modern Selene, with her surrealist modeling, fascinates with the strangeness of her protean symbolism. Beyond iconography, the image's power lies in its presence. Laublin demonstrates this by virtuously modulating his chromatic palette from vivid blues to pinks, in subtle nuances of a soft, vaporous, and cloudy white. With her long, flowing blonde hair and closed eyes, this young beauty elevates us toward a dreamlike beyond. Artistic creation and aesthetic delight converge here in a shared contemplative introspection, at the end of which matter appears spiritualized.