The Venetian lantern

The Venetian Lantern

The Venetian Lantern is one of Louise's many portraits of children. The canvas depicts a young girl in a beautiful dress. The room is dark. The dress and her face are lit by the burning candle in the Venetian lantern she is holding. A Venetian lantern is a lampion made of coloured paper with a light source inside. The light shines through the paper and creates a special effect.

Louise De Hem created this work around 1905. She had just moved from Ypres to Brussels and was at the height of her career. She exhibited at international salons and received various commissions from the wealthy bourgeoisie. She exhibited this oil painting in 1905 at the Salon of Paris, the most important salon of the time. In 1906, it could also be admired in Ghent and Antwerp, followed later by Brussels, Namur, Liège, Dresden and Antwerp again. She presented the Venetian lantern at no fewer than eight Salons, proof that the work was very popular with the public. Even today, the Venetian lantern is a favourite with the public.

Luminism

Light plays the leading role in the Venetian lantern. This focus on light and light incidence is reflected in many other works by Louise De Hem. In De Zwarte Kat (The Black Cat), for example, the room is bathed in sunlight through the windows. In the work Intimiteit (Intimacy), the play of light and shadow creates an almost transcendent atmosphere.

Louise De Hem is not the only artist around 1900 to pay so much attention to light, light effects and light radiation. Between 1890 and 1920, this was a striking feature of several artists on the Belgian scene. The art-historical term “luminism” is used to describe this phenomenon. Unlike Impressionism, for example, this was not a real movement with a clearly defined group of artists.

Many luminist works of art are landscapes and outdoor scenes bathed in light. There are also many similarities with pointillism. Louise De Hem's work lacks these two characteristics. Her paintings usually depict indoor scenes where the light comes either from an artificial source (such as a Venetian lantern) or from outside through the windows (such as in The Black Cat). There is also little evidence of pointillism in Louise De Hem's work. She incorporates light and the incidence of light into her own style. She applies a similar tactic to other “trends” in the art world: impressionism, realism and japonism. There are always (subtle) elements of these styles in her works, but she never fully embraces any one style. This makes it difficult to classify her work under a single movement.

The importance of light in the exhibition

From November 2022 to March 2023, the Ypres Museum hosted the exhibition “LOUISE/EDITH. Carried on hands”. We showed 50 works by the Ypres artist Louise De Hem. Light also plays a crucial role in the exhibition itself. Our curators deliberately chose to focus attention on the artworks themselves. The scenography or exhibition design is sober and does not draw attention to itself. The lighting reinforces this by highlighting only the paintings. In this way, we invite visitors to experience them quietly and in detail, without unwanted distractions. The interplay between light and dark also plays an important role in the video artwork by contemporary artist Edith Dekyndt. The lighting creates an intimate atmosphere in the exhibition. However, there is another important reason for keeping the exhibition dark. Louise De Hem worked extensively with pastels. Her pastel drawings on paper are beautiful. We are therefore displaying several of them in the exhibition. However, these are fragile works that cannot tolerate too much light. Limiting the light is an important precautionary measure to preserve the pastels for future generations.