Frantz CHARLET, Quayside in Ghent

Frantz Charlet
(Brussels 1862 - 1928 Paris)
Quayside in Ghent
circa 1885
charcoal on paper
45 x 54.5 cm
signed 'F. Charlet' lower left

Frantz Charlet first studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels under Jean-François Portaels. In Paris, his mentors were Jules Lefebvre, Carolus-Duran, and Jean-Léon Gérôme.
A member of the Essor group, he became, alongside James Ensor and Théo Van Rysselberghe, one of the founders of the famous Brussels avant-garde group, Les Vingt.
In 1885, he traveled through Belgium and Holland alongside James Whistler. Already captivated by the Divisionism of Seurat and Signac, whom he would later associate with, this trip marked a turning point in the evolution of his style, to which he brought a freer touch and lighter colors. It is likely that our drawing was created during the latter.
In Paris, the artist exhibited at Georges Petit's, as well as at the various Salons of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, from which he received a prize and then a medal in 1885.

Considered one of the most important painters of the New Belgian School, several museum institutions in that country (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels; Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp) hold some of his works.

This drawing depicts a canal in Ghent, lined with buildings and crossed by a bridge. Through a tight mesh of hatching, Charlet creates a diffuse atmosphere where water, architecture, and human silhouettes blend into a common vibration. The luminous sensitivity of the whole evokes in certain aspects the atmospheric research of Henri Le Sidaner.