Rachel Baes: Solo exhibition

Rachel Baes was friend with the surrealist artists, she was exhibited by Paul Éluard in 1946 and then by André Breton in 1953. She was portrayed by René Magritte in 1947 in his work Shéhérazade, and it is Marcel Lecompte who wrotes her first monograph the same year. Finally, in 1976, the gallery Isy Brachot, the largest Belgian dealer of surrealism, dedicated her a large exhibition. Despite this experience, Rachel Baes remains today among the unknown figures of the surrealist activity in Belgium.

Daughter of the painter Emile Baes, she began painting at the age of thirteen, depicting still life, flowers and landscapes. “As self-respecting woman, I began painting flowers” This period that Rachel Baes calls her «cauliflower» period will end in the early 40s when she starts to frequent the surrealists but also when private events come to disrupt her life. The death of her lover followed by her divorce from her husband. Rachel Baes then became an independent woman, without children and could therefore emancipated herself from the status of the time of a «self-respecting woman».

It is at this moment that Rachel Baes' painting became eminently personal. She naturally built her own style, reflecting both the aesthetic trends of her time while impregnating it with her personal input. Rachel Baes’ paintings draws its stylistic and thematic roots from a classic reservoir that she adapts to a surrealist universe. The girls and women she paints wear corsets, the angular drapery of their long dresses evokes Flemish painting. How not to think of Jan Van Eyck or Rogier Van der Weyden in front of a painting like Le Retable or Le Poumon Blanc in which the checkerboard tiles or drapes recall the works of these artists. The inspiration is all the more eloquent when we know that Rachel Baes will end her days in the city of Bruges and that she will realize in 1957 a series of nineteen paintings on the theme of the city.

The themes of her paintings refer to historical subjects or classical themes such as The Temptation of Saint Anthony, Oedipus and the Sphynx. Voltaire, The balance of Novalis and Goethe, refer to philosophical or literary themes. The most original inspiration of Baes’ painting is the deep and sincere expression of the feelings that she manages to transpose into her painting. The character convey her emotions. L’amour fou will evoke memories to many of us as much as L’entretien rétrospectif.

The work of Rachel Baes is an intimate autobiographical expression. It is the reflection of a woman of the time who had a good education, knowing painting and literature and being confronted with a strong life experience. She managed to free her painting from its classical foundation to bring it to an original expression just as she was led to do in her private life.