Re: Exhibition in Belgium

Mel Proudfoot (mel.proudfoot@ping.be)
Sun, 09 Nov 1997 10:40:58 +0100

Gene,

Coincidence is a strange thing! A day after reading your question about
Bilande I was looking through some old catalogues I found at the Musee
de la Photography Chaloroi - they gave me a couple as I have just joined
their association. I pick up anything with Bromoil on it.

One of them is dedicated to a retrospective of the work of Gustave
BIlande 1886-1954 including Gomme bichromatee and Bromoil prints.

This guy was the real thing! His work is beautiful! As far as I can tell
from the catalogue - my French is not up to much - the retrospective was
exhibited in Foyer Culturel de Florennes in November 1996. The catalogue
I have includes 16 of Bilande's prints, its about 8"x8" and a biography.
He was a pictorialist, of the Belgian school - Misonne, Marissiaux,
Chavepeyer. In addition to some excellent landscapes his Bromoil
portraits are outstanding example "Etude de tete - 1943" "Jeune anglaise
- 1920" and best of all in my view "profil 1947".

Having now seen the catalogue I think that one of his Bromoils maybe in
the Musee in the permanent collection, will have a look on my next
visit.

If your student does not have all this then the address is:

Musee de la Photographie
avenue Paul Pastur 11,
6100 Chaleroi
Belgium
Phone:+32-71-435810 (so dial international code then 32, country code
for Belgium)

If I can help just let me know.

brgds

Mel

GeneAlt@aol.com wrote:

> Mel,
>
> I meant to ask you in my note, was there any work in the show by the
> late
> Gustoff Bilande, a famous Belgium bromoilist of the 40's and 50's? His
> grand
> daughter, Annette Norman, lives in Richmond, Virginia (where I live)
> and is a
> bromoil student of mine.
> ------------------------
> -----------------------------------------------------
> --------------------------------------------
> Also, what kind of ink are you using for oil and bromoil --and are you
>
> stiffening it sufficiently? The ink should be very stiff.
>
> Ways to stiffen:
> 1. Magnesium carbonate. Use no more than one-third the volume of the
> ink.
> 2. Candle wax or beeswax. Melt in a spoon and put a couple of drops in
> the
> ink mixture.
>
> Should you get the ink too stiff, a pin head of lindseed oil will
> soften it.
> You also should soften the inl slightly in the later stages of the
> inking,
> along with increasing the temperature of the water, which, of course,
> increases the swelling of the gelatin of the matrix.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Gene Laughter