Baron Francis Delbeke

Antwerp painter Jules Schmalzigaug won a place in art history as the only Belgian associated with Futurism. Schmalzigaug was the son of a wealthy Antwerp merchant. During his school years he was diagnosed with scoliosis, a spinal deformity. He was sent for treatment to an institute in Dessau. There, he was taught by the landscape painter Paul Riess, who noticed Schmalzigaug’s drawing talent. A short time later, he decided to become an artist. He studied for a time at the Academy of Antwerp, traveled to Italy, and went to work occasionally in Bruges. He also went to Paris, where he met avant-garde artists and Cubists such as Braque and Picasso and Fauvist Kees van Dongen. In 1912, Schmalzigaug attended a lecture by Marinetti, the flamboyant leader of the Futurism. Although his family warned him against of Marinetti’s revolutionary ideas, Schmalzigaug decided to live in Italy, the base of Futurism. Futuristic artists aimed to capture the energy and dynamism of modern life. They saw the poetry of machines, motors, and electric lighting and were fascinated by speed and movement. But it was the aesthetics of Futurism that appealed to Schmalzigaug. You can see in his work the intensity of light and color.