Eugeen Van Mieghem
Date:
Eugeen Van Mieghem draws Antwerp in constant motion. In the early 20th century, the city transformed at lightning speed. Electric lighting, cars and trams were transforming the cityscape and the port was undergoing explosive growth. The city lived 24/7. Eugeen Van Mieghem recorded all this on paper. He had an eye for high and low culture, work and pleasure, love, passion and the harsh reality of life. He sketched continuously. His eye was his camera, and his hand drew with the same speed as the glances he snatched of his subjects.
The focus of this exhibition is Van Mieghem’s pastels and drawings: two techniques perfectly suited to his nervous disposition. Like a tireless reporter, he captured the dynamics of daily life in his spontaneous, rapidly-executed and whimsical sketches.
Innovation with pastels
In this exhibition, we show not only his iconic images of dockworkers, transmigrants, vagrants and prostitutes, but also lesser-known works, many of which have never been on public display before. Van Mieghem used pastels differently from his contemporaries: not for stilled scenes, but to capture movement and atmosphere. From bustling dance halls to solitary figures and from exhilarating carnival balls to monumental harbour views – his Antwerp lives and breathes colour and energy. Pastels were perfect for Van Mieghem’s needs. They were cheap, paper and chalk were easy to transport and you could go on touching up the drawing. So ideal for an artist who only has a tiny studio or whose studio is the street.
Van Mieghem usually worked on a modest scale, with a few exceptions, like a series of monumental pastels of the port he made in1912. We are showing a wide selection of his work, mainly from the Plantin-Moretus Museum’s collection - a larger number than has ever been seen together before. Some scenes, both impressionistic and impressive, reflect the evolution of the modern city and port. His human figures are increasingly dwarfed by the ocean liners and the grain elevators.
The Leysstraat at dusk - Eugeen Van Mieghem, 1912, private collection
In the dry dock - Eugeen Van Mieghem, ca 1912, private collection
Home-made sketchbooks
Van Mieghem was a DIY-er! Money was in short supply, so he made his own sketchbooks out of anything he could find: mourning cards, invitations and port telegrams. Some were as small as a matchbox as they had to fit into the palm of his hand. For this exhibition, many are leaving the boxes and drawers of private collectors for the first time. His thousands of drawings and sketches should be read first and foremost as his visual archive and highly personal ‘diary’.
Overview on paper
Curator Eric Rinckhout is drawing on the sizeable endowment gifted to the KMSKA by the Eugeen Van Mieghem Foundation. It encapsulates on paper the artist’s themes, including the enterprising city on the go, human suffering in the First World War, his fascination with the Jewish migrants on their way to America, and women and children going about their daily activities. Van Mieghem looked at the changing world with amusement, but remained a critical outsider.
Although he was probably well aware of the explosion of new art styles that were flooding the art world at the beginning of the twentieth century, they did not sway his own evolution as an artist. He continued to depict the world around him realistically, driven by his social conscience, observational skills and an unquenchable desire, need even, to draw. He looked, registered and drew – quickly, colourfully and uncompromisingly.
Curator and writer Eric Rinckhout is preparing a biography of Eugeen Van Mieghem. It will be published by Pelckmans at the end of September 2025 and presented at the KMSKA.
Practical information
- In the Print Room on the third floor
- The expo is included in the museum admission ticket. Booking a separate time slot for this expo is not required.
