Swanhead by Floris Jespers

A small but refined reverse painting on glass by one of our most famous avant-garde artists.

Reverse glass painting is an extremely delicate painting technique that involves painting directly onto glass. When the painting is finished, it is turned upside down so that one looks at the image through the glass. The advantage of this technique is that the background can be painted last.

After his graduation from the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, Floris Jespers hooked up with the poet Paul Van Ostaijen and joined the Antwerp avant-garde movement of the 1920s. He contributed to the publications Ça Ira, Le Centaure and Sélection and befriended Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes when they published Du Cubisme. In 1921 he had an exhibition abroad for the first time (the exhibition of the Dutch artistic group De Branding with Kurt Schwitters and Fokko Mees). In 1925 he became a member of Contemporary Art (Kunst van Heden).