Release Of Carrier Pigeons Aboard An Ocean Liner, Charles Crespin , Circa 1900

Adolphe Louis Charles Crespin (Brussels, 1892 – 1953)

Release of Carrier Pigeons aboard an Ocean Liner

Pencil, watercolour, and gouache on blue-green paper
36 × 29 cm
Stamped signature, lower right
On the reverse, stamp from the Charles Crespin studio sale, Millon et Associés, 29 March 2006
In perfect condition
Circa 1900

Adolphe Crespin was one of the leading figures of Art Nouveau in Belgium. A student at the Académie des Beaux-Arts of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, and later at the School of Decorative Arts of the Royal Academy of Brussels—where he associated with Fernand Khnopff—he would himself go on to teach at the Royal Academy. Among his pupils was Henri Evenepoel, who notably painted the portrait of Crespin’s wife.

Crespin distinguished himself above all as a decorator and poster artist, and was among the pioneers of Japonisme and of the new graphic styles that emerged at the turn of the century. A collaborator of the eminent architect Paul Hankar, he excelled in both interior and exterior decoration, particularly in the technique of sgraffito—a method of mural decoration achieved by incising a tinted surface to reveal contrasting layers beneath. He was responsible for some twenty remarkable Art Nouveau decorative schemes on public and private buildings in Brussels, including several designed by Hankar, such as the celebrated house of the painter Albert Ciamberlani and the architect’s own residence. Crespin’s lithographic portrait of Paul Hankar at work in his studio remains an icon of the Belgian fin-de-siècle style.

Quite apart from these stylistic explorations, the present watercolour appears more freely and spontaneously executed. It may have been conceived as an illustration project, or perhaps as a kind of visual logbook—a drawn chronicle of a journey.