Leon Spilliaert, Vertigo. 1908. India ink, watercolour and crayon on paper, 64 x 48 cm. Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ostend (Š SABAM Belgium 1998).
That Spilliaert' s paintings more than those of most other artists were landscapes of his emotions is most apparent in his self-portraits. These disturbed and disturbing pictures, mostly painted in 1907 and 1908, are among the most searching scrutinies of Self ever recorded. The artist' s strange face, with its dark-ringed protuberant eyes and faint moustache, surmounted by quiffed hair, recurs not just once in each self-portrait but sometimes several times over, reflected in a mirror or series of mirrors that multiply the image, which is often imprisoned in a geometric setting. These brutally candid selfportraits, carried out in predominantly dark colours, pose the questions: who am I? where do I come from? where am I going? No answer comes.
214 Leon Spilliaert, a Troubled and Troubling Painter