Leo Lewi (1909 - 1976)
A Belgian Artist of the Flemish Kempen

Leo Lewi was born in Antwerp on March 1, 1909 of Jewish parents. His father had emigrated from Poland (then under Russian governance) and his mother was of Scottish origin.

He recieved his art education at the Royal Academy of Antwerp and specialized in portrait painting at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts under the direction of Isidore Opsomer. His multifaceted artistic activity included graphic design, landscape painting and portrait drawing (Fig.1, selfportrait).

In 1936 Leo Lewi converted to Catholicism and was baptized in the abbey of the canons regular of Prémontré (Norbertines) at Tongerlo (province of Antwerp) by father Kallist Fimmers, a painter with whom he had made acquaintance at the Higher Institute.
Shortly thereafter Leo Lewi married Mariette Devocht, who was a fellow student in Antwerp.

Mariette Devocht grew into a sensitive artist whose work focused on watercolor painting, pastel drawing and engraving. The couple raised five children.

Leo Lewi was attracted by the people and the region where his wife was born and raised (the Kempen or Campines in the north of Belgium). Most of his artistic work was created in the rural town of Turnhout (Fig.2, oil on canvas).
During the years preceding World War II he had integrated in the Flemish community and supported the movement for cultural and economic autonomy of Flanders. He also advocated the reconciliation of Jewish and Catholic believers. Leo Lewi and Mariette Devocht were a talented and idealistic artistic couple with a promising career before them.

The Nazi occupation of Belgium, however, put an abrupt end to their ambitions. With the help of courageous friends, who provided timely warnings and refuge, the family with four little children succeeded in surviving the five harsh years of World War II.

After the war Leo Lewi remained true to his initial impressionist and animistic orientation. The growing modernist movements did not appeal to him, and as a consequence commissions for paintings remained scarce.
He realized, however, an extensive series of religiously inspired charcoal drawings, mainly of clerics (Fig.3, Father Damien, charcoal), Saints and statues of the Holy Virgin Mary.

During the later part of his life he became a dedicated and inspiring art teacher at regional academies (Kalmthout, Arendonk and Mol).

Leo Lewi died in Beerse on October 11, 1976 at the age of 67. He was survived by Mariette Devocht, his wife and companion in the arts, for 23 years. Only one of their five children, the ceramist Wenefrida Lewi, opted for an artist's life.

The work of Leo Lewi is highly varied. In his early artistic period he designed posters, notably for bell tower concerts in Mechelen (1929), the “Vooruit” in Gent (1931) and the “IJzerbedevaart” (1934). He also illustrated books, such as with charcoal drawings of puppet heads of the popular “Poesje” theatre (1933) and a series of portraits of popular figures in “Kempisch Volk” (1935).

As a painter Leo Lewi was fascinated by the illuminated landscape of the Kempen, with its flat dividing line between earth and sky, here and there broken by peasant huts, windmills or distant church towers.

He became a master of the portrait, occasionally with oil on canvas, but most often in charcoal on paper. His portraits include those of intellectuals, artists and prominent people (Grietens, De Bom, Fleerackers, Borms, Van Durme, Sterneveld and many others) as well as those of peasants and laborers (Fig.4, charcoal).
The art critic René Turkry described Leo Lewi's portraits as “unveiling the essential character, probing without embellishments toward the soul, and exploring the face with subtle introspection”.