The Musée Maillol’s upcoming exhibition presented for the first time at the LaM in Villeneuve d’Ascq in 2019, reveals the work of the three significant spiritualist painters of northern France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Augustin Lesage, Victor Simon and Fleury-Joseph Crépin.

The chronological, historical, and thematic organization of the exhibition presents more than one hundred works from the LaM, which holds the largest collection of spiritualist art in the world, as well as from public and private collections in Europe.

All three artists came from modest backgrounds in the Pas-de-Calais coalfields originally working as miners, plumbers, or cafe owners. Nothing suggested a destiny as professional artists, yet painting was ultimately their calling.

Augustin Lesage, Victor Simon and Fleury-Joseph Crépin produced exceptionally meticulous works conceived as spiritual creations. The artists combined influences and motifs of disparate origins: Christian, Hindu, even ancient Egypt. Ornamentation and symmetry dominate the works, evident also in the works of other spiritualist painters featured in the same exhibition.

The spiritualist art movement first appeared in the United States in the mid-19th century and was widely emulated through Europe. Communication with spirits began as a social phenomenon, then, encouraged by wars, was adopted and cultivated within intellectual circles. Surrealists such as André Breton and Jean Dubuffet were among the first to collect works by these artists.

Through archive documents, contemporary works and videos, the exhibition also highlights the survival of spiritualist practices and their influences beyond painting.