French painter, printmaker and illustrator, born in 1927 in Paris, died in 2020 in the same city. A leading figure of Fantastic Realism.
Life
Flemish on his father’s side, Claude Verlinde drew from childhood. A teacher urged him to sit the entrance examination for the École des arts appliqués à l’industrie; he passed, but the war swept the plan away and the family withdrew to Saint-André-sur-Orne, in Normandy. Apprenticed in a workshop of religious sculpture, he then assisted Drouin, director of the École des beaux-arts in Caen, in restoring the church of Saint-Pierre. Drouin, who was passing surveys of the Atlantic Wall to London, was shot on D-Day. During the fighting Verlinde sheltered in the iron mines, where he drew underground life and the refugees; the family home was destroyed.
The family was rehoused in Montigny-lès-Cormeilles, in a house without water or electricity; there Verlinde met Dr Guy Dulon, a collector of African and pre-Columbian art, who supported the painter all his life and bought his first sculpture, Le Joueur de luth. At seventeen, staying with his father’s family in Belgium, Verlinde discovered Bosch and Bruegel the Elder: the encounter was decisive.
After his military service at the Dijon air base, where he painted a fresco in the officers’ mess, he frequented the Galerie des Antiques and Souverbie’s studio at the École des beaux-arts in Paris, as well as the anatomical drawing sessions at the Grande Chaumière. In 1955 he settled in Vallauris: a decorator for potters in the morning, a painter in the afternoon. There he met Robert Tatin, under whose influence he briefly tried his hand at Art Brut before following his own path. He returned to Paris in 1960.
The work
A humanist painter in his own words, Verlinde belongs to a lineage running from Bosch, Bruegel and Cranach to Ensor. As well as painting and drawing, he practised engraving, lithography (printed at Mourlot) and sculpture (resin, bronze, terracotta, plaster). As an illustrator he designed book covers, the poster for the Avoriaz festival (1983), theatre sets and costumes, notably for Marivaux at the Comédie-Française, and bibliophile editions of Pantagruel (2001) and La Fontaine’s Fables.
Exhibitions and collections
- Galerie Duncan, Paris, 1948; retrospectives at the Galerie de la place Beauvau, Paris (1980), and in six Japanese cities (1985); Palais Coburg, Vienna (2005); guest of honour at Art Capital, Grand Palais, Paris (2019).
- Collections: Musée départemental de l’Oise, Beauvais; Musée Daubigny, Auvers-sur-Oise; museum devoted to the artist in Vitznau (Switzerland), on Lake Lucerne.
- “At the Sources of Convulsive Beauty”, Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, 25 October to 30 November 2024: L’Ibis sacré, 1971, oil on canvas, 54 x 73 cm.
- “The Subversion of Images”, Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, 24 January to 8 March 2025: Dans le fauteuil, 1996, oil on panel, 80 x 55 cm.
- “The Fantastic Realism of Claude Verlinde”, summer exhibition, Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, 10 to 26 July 2025.
- “The Gallery’s 25th Anniversary”, Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, 22 May to 19 June 2026: Jeu d’échecs, 1970, oil on canvas, 38 x 55 cm.