In early 1920, a large Roma clan descended near Sint-Agatha-Berchem, at the time a municipality still belonging to the Dutch part of the then Belgian province of Brabant. The ‘clairvoyant’ Roma made their living out of creative trading. As a result they knew only too well from experience that they had an added picturesque value among the local population in our region. Therefore, they were seen wandering the streets of Brussels and the suburbs in small groups everyday, knocking on painters’ doors. They had their addresses, scribbled on scraps of paper (a piece of information from Gand Artistique, November 1923, a contribution by Maurice Haloche). Jean Colin regarded the Roma as a true revelation. They had something magical about them: their tanned faces with their noble features, their charcoal eyes – shining and black, their skin with its copper complexion and their moiré ‘gowns’. In what other people called ‘rags’, Colin saw a feast of noble attire, of which the reds, yellows and blues begged to be painted by him. They would make perfect models, this was seventh heaven for a colourist! From that day on, Colin could not keep his eyes off those fascinating travellers. He started painting them as if in a whirl: women, girls and boys, young and old, one canvas after another. He painted them in a seemingly straightforward way, but all the same imbued with real noblesse. It was said that Cardinal Mercier (1851-1926, a Belgian philosopher, archbishop and cardinal) tried to convert these nomads to the Christian faith, but as far as Colin was concerned they could remain who they were: independent descendants of an itinerant race that had preserved the romance of the wild, the adventurous and the picturesque. They shared with him his fondness of foreign travel and the endless quest for perfection, like a dream hunter. Soon, the Roma became his companions, even his friends. In the long run, they became so attached to him that they stored their tents at his house, had their meals there and devoted them- selves to making music, singing and dancing. The Colin residence became the Roma’s ‘open house’. They used his piano as their dinner table, the carpets became the small children’s playground. Colin did not complain at all, for he felt at home in their company. ‘The Roma are indeed a lively people,’ he stated, ‘but also quite honourable.’ And he continued: ‘After a while, they considered my studio their headquarters. One day, I asked one of the women to pose for me with her child. Around dinner time, not two, but some fifteen women and children arrived, with barbaric (editor’s note: this is quoted verbatim) names like Sika, Stoyka, Terka, Louba-Loubo, Wogo… Unceremoniously, they nestled down in my studio to have dinner together. The meal, which they fetched from a large basket, consisted of bread and sausage, which they dipped into a pickled sauce by turns. During certain times, these frugal meals would take place in my studio, which the tribe had transformed into an eating-house. This was often accompanied by a prelude of song and dance. Given the kind- ness of these people, the women did not hesitate to give me a seat around the dish and shove a piece of sausage my way, drenched in their devilish sauces… Sometimes one has to overcome one’s aver- sion to the taste of the picturesque. Once the meal had been finished, the older women stretched out on the cushions and chairs to take a nap, while the younger women taught their children how to read my palm. Together they made up an interesting group, lacking neither colour nor plasticity (from Gand Artistique, November 1923)’. Jean Colin observed his environment with his heart, a striking characteristic during his whole career. He was often ‘in love’ – at times quite literally – with a number of his subjects, and to such an extent that passion would radiate from the work. Colin immortalized ‘his’ nomads, made them shine on the canvas in hallowed paint, like lyrical outpourings. He put his soul into it and was rewarded for it at the time with the unanimous admiration that these honest and spontaneous works would evoke. The Roma brought a great and fertile influence to his painting, a predilection he extended to other southern types. His numerous canvases on these subjects – which were often marked by the colourist’s preference for vivid colours – were very successful. Other artists, such as Philippe Swyncop 30 or Jean Laudy 31 , had also ventured to portray Roma. Their works were vivid representations, it is true, but clearly without much commitment, so that one felt the lack of nuance (according to the art critic Gaston HEUX in the art magazine Savoir et Beauté, March 1924). 30 Philippe Swyncop (b. Brussels, 1878 – d. Saint-Gilles-Waes, 1949), Brussels painter, illustrator and poster designer. He entered the contest for the coveted Prix de Rome no less than three times (in 1898, 1904 and 1907), without receiving any laurels. However, in 1900 he did receive the Godecharle Prize. Like Jean Colin, Swyncop joined Le Sillon and the Cercle Artistique d’Auderghem. Until 1924, he mainly painted impressionist portraits. 31 Jean Laudy (b. Venlo, 1877 – d. Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, 1956), Dutch painter, who settled in Brussels at the age of twenty and stayed there until his death. Like Jean Colin, Laudy was a long-time permanent member of the Le Sillon group. Both Brussels and Venlo named a street after him, while Venlo is home to the art museum ‘Jean Laudy Museum Chapel’. As is usual among itinerant people, the special guests of Hôtel Jean left again after a while. Maybe in search of other painters who, for a reasonable donation, might want to portray them. For Jean Colin, they always remained where they had been – he continued to experience the pleasure of their ‘primitive beauty’. After all, he had taken them to his heart and they were branded on his memory to such an extent that they remained colourful and were forever dancing – like a leitmotiv. Later, Colin would regard his encounter with the Roma as one of the most beautiful periods of his life. He would keep on painting them inexhaustibly and for many years to come the trade press would elaborate on their friendship in almost every article, although this particular group of Roma only spent a short time in the Brussels region. In each solo exhibition and almost each group exhibition that took place during his lifetime, Jean Colin exhibited paintings of the Romanichels and other southern types. We have documentation on this up to and including the 1955 solo exhibition at the Royal Cercle d’Art d’Anderlecht and the 1959 group exhibition of the same art society. Ultimately, the Roma’s added picturesque value had become Colin’s decisive success. Copyright Marc Pairon: Impressionism :Hidden Masterpieces of Jean Colin Jean Colin’s death, a monumental canvas was found in his bedroom in the Liefdadigheids- straat in the Brussels district of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, dating from 1920 and depicting eight Roma figures (#050). In spite of the fact that the aesthetic appeal of the exotic was one of Colin’s pet subjects and represents an important part of his oeuvre, we will include no other works which illustrate this in the present publication, because the impressionistic touch of such paintings is usually not dominating – after all, they were made after the art-historical period of Belgian Impressionism – and we are therefore unable to classify these as his ‘impressionist masterpieces’, which are the subject of this publication. Although the term ‘gypsy’ occurs in the original literature, we have consciously avoided this term in our text, because it has since acquired a negative resonance and is regarded as discriminatory by many Roma. As a matter of fact – because of what we now know –, Jean Colin would find it distasteful today, in spite of the fact that at the time he used the word ‘barbaric’ himself within the context mentioned earlier on, but that was during an altogether different period. Copyright © Marc Pairon: Impressionism :Hidden Masterpieces of Jean Colin