Iwan Gilkin
Encyclopedia
Iwan Gilkin was a Belgian poet. Born in Brussels
, Gilkin was associated with the Symbolist
school in Belgium. His works include Les ténèbres (1892, featuring a frontispiece by Odilon Redon
) and Le Sphinx (1907). Linked with the development of the literary revue the Parnasse de la Jeune Belgique, he was an early appreciator of the Comte de Lautréamont
's infamous work, Les Chants de Maldoror, and sent several copies of the book to his friends, including fellow poet Léon Bloy
. His mature works, which often concerned difficult religious and philosophical themes, reflect a highly pessimistic, spiritual and anti-positivistic outlook, influenced by Charles Baudelaire
and Arthur Schopenhauer
. A French-language study of Gilkin by Henri Liebrecht was published in 1941.
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Gilkin was associated with the Symbolist
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
school in Belgium. His works include Les ténèbres (1892, featuring a frontispiece by Odilon Redon
Odilon Redon
Bertrand-Jean Redon, better known as Odilon Redon was a French symbolist painter, printmaker, draughtsman and pastellist.-Life:...
) and Le Sphinx (1907). Linked with the development of the literary revue the Parnasse de la Jeune Belgique, he was an early appreciator of the Comte de Lautréamont
Comte de Lautréamont
Comte de Lautréamont was the pseudonym of Isidore Lucien Ducasse , an Uruguayan-born French poet....
's infamous work, Les Chants de Maldoror, and sent several copies of the book to his friends, including fellow poet Léon Bloy
Léon Bloy
Léon Bloy , was a French novelist, essayist, pamphleteer and poet.-Biography:Bloy was born in Notre-Dame-de-Sanilhac, in the arondissement of Périgueux, Dordogne. He was the second of six sons of Voltairean freethinker and stern disciplinarian Jean Baptiste Bloy and his wife Anne-Marie Carreau,...
. His mature works, which often concerned difficult religious and philosophical themes, reflect a highly pessimistic, spiritual and anti-positivistic outlook, influenced by Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
and Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal...
. A French-language study of Gilkin by Henri Liebrecht was published in 1941.