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Marten Melsen (Brussels 1870 - Stabroek, Belgium 1947) was a Flemish painter.

The artist
The work of Marten Melsen presents a humorous picture of the life of the farmer in the countryside. He painted and drew everyday existence on the polders: raw, uncultivated and primitive. He captured their vitality in scenes of work and also recreation at the inn and the fairground. He kept a certain distance, which led to some exaggeration of humour and irony. His work may be described as vivid, but he never portrayed the country people as coarse or rough.

Melsen’s masterly work was done near the border between Belgium and the Netherlands, where Vincent van Gogh had painted his first farmers twenty years previously, and can be placed in the context of nineteenth-century social realism. His work is also a manifestation of naturalism, the late nineteenth-century cultural movement which, in both art and literature, reacted against both the academic Romanticism and the Symbolism of that time, and took nature as its underlying principle and its guiding light. Although his work is firmly rooted in the Dutch-Flemish painting tradition, it is not easy to attach Melsen’s original art to any particular school.

His work is always figurative and sometimes appears impressionist, without ever really being so. He influenced the Expressionists without himself ever being one. Even during his Luminist period he never came anywhere near Fauvism, unlike some of his fellow painter friends whose work evolved towards Brabant Fauvism. The most obvious element in Marten Melsen’s painting is an understanding humour. In the early days it even verged on caricature, but without ever overstepping the line. This empathic humour fundamentally distinguishes Melsen from such realists as Eugene Laermans and Jakob Smits, to whom he appears most akin, and from most other European artists of his day.

Though his parents originated from a Dutch town near Antwerp, Melsen was born in Brussels in 1870, where they had set up a sheep butcher’s shop, and although he was educated entirely in that city, and most critics count him as a member of the Flemish-Belgian school, we are inclined to compare his not overly-studied work with schools of painters in the Netherlands, even though he himself never mentioned any Dutch influence and despite the fact that naturalism was not so common there. The fact that he was born half Belgian and half Dutch may of course have something to do with it. The way Melsen handled this subject places him somewhere between the Dutch painters of the Hague School and the Belgian painters, the former presenting a romanticised and idyllic but realist rendering, and the latter treating the subject in a more detailed, sometimes almost photographic and documentary style.

However, Melsen’s composition, technique and palette remain clearly related to the Belgian school.

Melsen was a child of his era, like so many other naturalist painters of the period from 1895 to 1914, including the Latem School: they liked painting in the open air - at a time of great industrialisation and urbanisation, what was seen as the authentic and honest life of country people was a great attraction to many artists, who went out into their environment to paint them. These same painters also occasionally made use of what was then the new technique of photography in the creation of their modern art. Though he was inspired by and friends with many of the notable minds of the day, Marten Melsen’s art always remained original, pure and unique. It is a ‘hidden treasure’ of modern art from the Low Countries.

In 1942 the 72-year-old artist was honoured with studies by Emmanuel De Bom, a member of the Royal Flemish Academy, and the eminent art historian Georges Marlier. Now, sixty years later, this book is the first in-depth publication on Marten Melsen since that time and has involved years of preparatory work.

Monographies
Melsen, Jan, Marten Melsen. Vijftig jaar later, Drukkerij De Vroey, Antwerpen 1997, 40 pp.

Melsen, Jan, Marten Melsen, Tentoonstelling van waterverf, enz..., Drukkerij Ripa, Kapellen 1997, 40 pp.

Bredael-Smekens, Lutgarde, Vier uit de Antwerpse polder, Lannoo 1979

De Bom, Emmanuel, Marten Melsen, De Sikkel Antwerpen & Nijhoff ‘s Gravenhage, 1947, 28 pp.

Marlier, Georges, Marten Melsen, Uitg. De Standaard, Antwerpen 1943, 28 pp.

De Bom, Emmanuel, Marten Melsen, oolijk schilder der boeren uit het polderland, Uitg. H. Melsen, Brussel 1942, 102 pp. (lux. ed 200 exempl. 50 reprod. multichrome)

General works on art
Goyens de Heusch, L’impressionisme et le fauvisme en Belgique, Fonds Mercator Anvers, 1988, p. 313

Muls Jozef, De boer in de kunst, Davidsfonds Leuven 1946, p 207, illustr.

Marlier Georges, Die Flämische Malerei der Gegenwart, Eugen Diederichs Verlag Jena 1943, p. 74

Cornette A.H., Drie uren in het Koninkl. Museum voor SK, Antwerpen, Dienst voor Prop. & Toer. P 75-77

Toussaint van Boelaere, F., Marten Melsens, in Litterair Scheepsjournaal, I, Brussel Onze Tijd 1938, p.196-200

Hellens Franz, Les Arts plastiques, in Grandes Figures de la Belgique indépendante, Ed. Bieleveld Bxl, p. 190

Koninckx Willy, 30 jaar dienst in de kunst, Kunst van Heden, Drukk. Burton Antwerpen, p.29, 32, 35, 78

Colin, Paul, La peinture belge depuis 1830, Cahiers de Belgique 1930

De Mont, Pol, De Schilderkunst in België van 1830 tot 1921, Martinus Nijhoff Den Haag 1921, p. 122, 232, 246

Eekhoud G, Les peintres animaliers belges au XIXe siècle, Libr Nat. d’Art & d’Histoire, Brux/Paris 1911, p. 116

Picard, Edmond, Ostende Centre d’Art, Trois saisons d’activité 1905-1907, Larcier Bruxelles 1907, p. 25, 28

Pierron, Sander, L’Année artistique 1906, Ed. Butens Bruxelles 1907, p. 33, 150-152, 254, 273, illustr.

Lemonnier Camille, L’école Belge de peinture 1930-1905, Libr.Nat.d’Art & d’Hist., Brux.Van Oest 1906, p. 226

Du Jardin, Jules, L’Art flamand. Les Artistes Contemporains, Tome VI, Ed. Arthur Boitte Bruxelles 1900, p. 127

Illustrated press articles
Vranckx Ch., M. Melsen, Peintre breughelien des paysans des polders anversois, in La Semaine, 18-1-2002, p. 1

De Nys André, M. Melsen in de voetstappen van Pieter Breugel, in Kappa Kunstplatform, 1-2-1997, p. 16-18

Melsen Jan, Marten Melsen 1870-1947, De artistieke evolutie, in Stabroeks Gemeenteblad, 15 dec 1996, p. 5

Van den Aarssen, De tovenaar van Stabroek, in Brabants Nieuwsblad 11 juli 1996

Melsen Theofiel, Marten Melsen, schilder van de polder en zijn mensen, in Polderheem, 1976

Mertens Fr., Marten Melsen en zijn boeren in het Verhaerenmuseum, in Gazet van Antwerpen, 16-8-1969

De Lie Staf, Marten Melsen, schilder van boeren uit het polderland, in De Toerist, 16 april 1958, p. 276-277

De Cnodder Remi, Bij het werk van Marten Melsen, in Het Volk, 16 okt 1955

Van Passen R., Een wereld in Stabroek Boerenschilder M. Melsen in De Vlaamse Linie, 1952 n° 191, p.5

Muls Jozef, Marten Melsen, de boerenschilder, in Gazet van Antwerpen, 11 febr 1947

Tralbaut M.E., Marten Melsen, in Nieuw Vlaanderen, 1944 (april, in 3 delen)

AMS, De Schilder vh Polderleven. Melsen in het Sted. salon Antw, in Laagland/Ons Tooneel, mrt 1943, p.3

Mertens Frans, De klucht der vergissingen, in Volk en Kultuur, 1943

De Bom Emmanuel, Marten Melsen, een kunstenaar van beteekenis, in Het Laatste Nieuws, 1943

De Bom E, Marten Melsen, olijke schilder der boeren uit het polderland, in Nieuw Vlaanderen, 28-11-1942, p. 8

Du Castillon Léonce, Martin Melsen, in L’Expansion Belge, 1937, p. 892-894

Vonck, Theo, Marten Melsen, de Polder-Breughel, in Katholieke Illustratie, n° 47, P. 1491

Zielens, Lode, De uitbeelder van de polders: Martin Melsen, in De Stad Antwerpen, 1930, p. 567

Van Hemeldonck Emile, Op bezoek bij kunstschilder Marten Melsen, in Lenteweelde, 1930, p. 88-90

Eeckels Constant, Een broer van Breugel: Marten Melsen in Hooger Leven, n° 9, p. 1172

Vriamont, Joris, Marten Melsen, in Elseviers Geïll. Maandschrift, Jg XXXV, 1925, Jan-Juni, p. 80-90

Laenen Jean, Martin Melsen, Le peintre de la vie paysanne anversoise, in Mephisto, oct. 1924, p. 8

Baccaert, Herman, Marten Melsen, in Elseviers Geïll. Maandschrift, jg. XXV, 1915, juli-dec, p. 160-176

Van de Woestijne, Karel, Marten Melsen in Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, april 1911

Fassotte, Joris, Marten Melsen, in De Vrije Tribune, 1907

Reference works & dictionaries
Arto, Bautier et al, Bénézit, Berko, Busse, De Seyn, Denoël, Davenport, Devezelle, Delarge, Jacobs, Flippo, Legrain, Hislop, Piron, Roberts-Jones, Sauer, Vollmer, Thieme-Becker, etc.