Léon Navez (1900-1967) - Nature morte au col vert et fruits

Oil on canvas representing a still life of green parakeets and fruits signed

Léon NAVEZ
(1900-1967)

Léon Navez, born July 5, 1900 in Mons and died August 21, 1967 in Auderghem, was a Belgian painter, master glassmaker and decorator. Painter of nudes, portraits, interiors and still lifes, he co-founded the Nervia group. Léon Navez was a communist and actively participated in the resistance during World War II.

Biography
Léon Navez, born July 5, 1900 in Mons, is the son of Henri Charles Navez and Louise Ambroisine Cantiheau. He came from a very modest family and lost his parents very early. He was thus raised by his grandmother. On March 26, 1928, he married Lucienne (Lulu) Jouanne, who gave him a son. She died in February 1950 and he later remarried Agnès De Ronne.

He held various manual occupations in his youth, notably in the workshops of the artist Frans Depooter’s father, a building painter and decorator, where he discovered painting and met his future Nervia colleagues: Léon Devos, Frans Depooter and Anto Carte.

He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Mons in watercolor with Émile Motte in “wood and marble,” then, from 1921, at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels in drawing with Jean Delville, painting with Herman Richir and Anto Carte and monumental art with Emile Fabry. At the same time he worked as an apprentice in decoration workshops and in the studio of master glassmaker Florent-Prosper Colpaert.

In 1924, he won the Godecharle Prize as well as a travel grant. Thus he spent five years in Paris with Léon Devos, from 1924 to 1928. There he undertook various decorative works: postage stamps, banknotes for the Congo and the Americas, and even copies of old paintings.

Back in Belgium, Léon Navez obtained the Prix de Rome in painting in 1928, the year when he participated as a member in the foundation of the Nervia group, a modern movement that sought to promote Walloon art. Members include: Anto Carte, Louis Buisseret, Frans Depooter, Léon Devos, Pierre Paulus, Rodolphe Strebelle, Taf Wallet and Jean Winance.

In 1929, he was appointed professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Mons, where he taught until 1946.

In 1930, he, with Charles Crespin, created stained glass for the Abbey of La Cambre. During that year he received the Hainaut Prize, rewarding artists of the province who produced in all fields of art “a work worthy of interest.”

For the 1935 Brussels World’s Fair, Léon Navez created a fresco dedicated to “King Albert and Queen Elisabeth, protectors of the sciences and arts,” which decorates the grand staircase of the General Secretariat.

In 1936, he participated in the Venice Biennale with two paintings. They were part of the Hungarian exhibit at the Belgian art show in Budapest in 1937.

Always mindful of fraternity with his artist friends, he founded with Léon Eeckman in 1939 the Orientations group, then served as secretary in 1949 of the Présence group which brought together established artists such as André Willequet, Jacques Maes or Maurice Wyckaert and younger students. His spirit of solidarity extended to the social movements of the time, earning him consideration by Paul Caso as one of the first to speak of social realism.

During World War II, Léon Navez, a member of the Belgian Communist Party, actively participated in the resistance from 1940. His studio on Rue aux Laines became an important relay for action and one of the key places of the Front de l’Indépendance in Brussels. It was the nucleus for the conception and realization of the Faux Soir, the pirate edition of November 9, 1943 of Le Soir confiscated by the Nazi occupier. This act of resistance led to the deportation and death of several of the people involved. After the war, Léon Navez documented the memory of this adventure in a painting exhibited in 1949 at the premises of the communist newspaper Drapeau rouge to commemorate acts of resistance. The painting has unfortunately disappeared and no representation remains.

In 1946, Léon Navez was appointed professor of applied ornamentation to arts and crafts at the Ecole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs La Cambre in Brussels. From 1956 he also taught at the Saint-Ghislain Technical School for Women.

In 1956, a stay in the Congo with his son and his second wife inspired intimate tableaux (The Pregnant Woman, The Water Carrier, Woman’s Head) and decorative works favoring the purity of forms and poetic landscapes (Champ de lava and Arbres brûlés). He also illustrated several works, including two publications by Maurice Carême, Mère and La Bien-aimée.

Léon Navez was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium on January 7, 1960, after having been elected a corresponding member on July 4, 1957. Around the same time, he carried out a commission of engraved glass for the Mons Provincial Palace.

Navez’s works are held in particular by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.

After his death in Auderghem on August 17, 1967, he received a civil funeral in Auderghem.

Artistic Style
Léon Navez was inspired by Renaissance painters of Tuscany whom he admired. In this sense he aligned with Anto Carte, who for him is a true spiritual father with whom he stayed in Florence. He tended toward an expressionist simplification, interpreting reality rather than representing it exactly. Around 1948, his plastic explorations, guided by Braque, Modigliani and Lhote, led him to stylize his compositions, as shown by the portrait of couturier Gustave van Geluwe. His work is sometimes linked to the movement of the New Objectivity.

In his subjects, he sought to capture intimate scenes and frequently produced stylized portraits of women or children in a familiar setting.

dimensions of the work: without frame: 60 cm x 80 cm; with frame: 76 cm x 96 cm

The work is signed in the center on the left
The frame is slightly damaged with a few losses; see photos.

Auction results for Léon NAVEZ in Painting:
Still life
Léon NAVEZ
Oil/Canvas
60 x 73.5 cm
Estimate: €2,000 - €3,000
Hammer price: €1,500
09/03/2026
Galerie Moderne
Still life with lobster and oysters (1923)
Léon NAVEZ
Oil/Canvas
54 x 73 cm
Estimate: €400 - €600
Hammer price: €950
07/09/2021
Horta
Still life
Léon NAVEZ
Oil/Canvas
50 x 65 cm
Estimate: €1,000 - €1,300
Hammer price: €900
29/04/2008
Campo
Still life (Nervia period)
Léon NAVEZ
Oil/Canvas
56 x 65 cm
Estimate: €400 - €600
Hammer price: €360
14/06/2026
Stanley’s Auction