Midy Ernest

Ernest Midy was a Belgian artist, born in Brussels in 1877 and died in Kalmthout in 1938. He was a painter and watercolorist. He followed his education at the Academy and at the Higher Institute in Antwerp, under the supervision of F. Van Leemputten. In 1898 he took part in the preparatory competition for the Prix de Rome and in 1901 registered to take part in the entrance examination for this Prize. He became director of the Municipal Drawing School in Mol (1903-1914). During the First World War he was imprisoned as a prisoner of war in Soltau. There he became deaf. He lived in Mol and had his studio in Mol-Sluis, where he received his friends Edgard Farasyn and Floris De Cuyper. He found his inspiration in the Kempen landscape and the simple people who lived there. Among other things, he made portraits, figures and melancholic Kempen landscapes, firmly set in paint paste. From the press: “Painting nature and its daily light miracle: for him this becomes an act full of consecration, an act full of mysticism. It becomes ecstasy or prayer” and “It should not be surprising that the names of Millet, with his consecrated romanticism, and of master Th. Verstraete, who also managed to envelop Kempen life in so much mystery and modesty of light that his art almost becomes religious art.” (J. Crick) After the First World War, the Drawing School was not reopened until 1930. Ernest Midy spent the rest of his life in Kalmthout, somewhat withered. He is mentioned in CRICK, BAS II and Two centuries of signatures of Belgian artists. (Piron)