Auguste Donnay Biography


Regarding Pl. 59
Poster for the International Choral Song Contest organized by the city of Liege.
Unlike France, where almost all artistic activity was concentrated in the capital, Belgium had a secondary creative centre of exceptional quality, the city of Liege. With his friends Emile Berchmans and Armand Rassenfosse, Donnay formed a trio of artists recognized as the three most important of Liege. Of the three, Donnay was the more grave and meditative. The atmosphere his posters release has nothing to do with the life poured forth by Berchmans and Rassenfosse. His woman neither laugh nor drink, they are thoughtful. His body of work, full of contained emotion, is of great pictorial purity (Weill p.61, 62)