Ernest Godfrinon
Man with Pipe, 1906
oil on panel
39 by 30.5cm.
The oeuvre left behind by Ernest Godfrinon (1878-1927) pivots between vibrant depictions of sun-drenched greenhouses on one side and more dimly-lit bourgeouis interiors of fin-de-siècle Brussels on the other. And...
The oeuvre left behind by Ernest Godfrinon (1878-1927) pivots between vibrant depictions of sun-drenched greenhouses on one side and more dimly-lit bourgeouis interiors of fin-de-siècle Brussels on the other. And the impressionist manner in which he presented these constrasting worlds on canvas, led him to join Le Sillon - an artistic collective which aimed at being a counterweight to the prevailing symbolist and neo-impressionist currents.
Greatly outnumbered by these exteriors and interiors, however, are the artist's portraits. In the present example, Man with Pipe, the 28-year old Godfrinon demonstrates great technical finesse in his depiction of a man seated reversely on a chair, his eyes turned away from the viewer. The picture exudes a sense of complete unencumburedness - achieved by the sitter's relaxed pose, the gentle, upward movement of the smoke from his pipe, and a great tonal warmth.
Between the years 1906-10, the Neefs distillery commissioned Godfrinon to design a series of commercial posters. With this practice, Godfrinon succeeded Henri Privat-Livemont and preceded René Magritte in a historical tradition which saw Belgian distilleries engage with prominent artists of their time. The present work likely served as a direct model for those subsequent advertisements (such as Fig. 2).
Fig. 1. Museum Charlier image?
Fig. 2. Interieuraffiche 'Samson Kina' van stokerij Neefs, Antwerpen, 1908 by Neefs, Jacques (stokerij) - 1908 - Jenever Museum Hasselt, Belgium - CC BY-NC SA.
https://www.europeana.eu/item/2023012/71022A52_priref_28596
Additional source: https://www.deoudeflesch.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/DISTILLEERDERIJ-NEEFS-DE-KEMPENAER.pdf