December 03, 2021
La Petite Bande will be 50 years in 2022 , and celebrates its jubilee with the famous painter Thierry Bosquet
-Sigiswald Kuijken tells about his meeting with the famous painter Thierry Bosquet-
I met Thierry Bosquet in the 1980s through Philippe Lenaël, one of the first theatre and opera directors to specialise in Baroque historical staging. My meeting with Thierry immediately moved me.
Thierry Bosquet (born in 1937 in Uccle) turned out to be a true soul mate for me (and also for my wife Marleen)! His long and successful career as a painter and theatre designer brought him in many different countries, and even now he is still painting almost every day!
Thierry's imagination is entirely populated by characters from the 17th and 18th centuries, dressed in their own clothes, with their own gestures and expressions. They show us their lives and customs, their tastes, their wealth and poverty, and before we realize it, we feel the eternal echoes in our hearts when looking to them... Thierry is in love with this beauty, this theatricality, these curls and frills that were part of the life of the time!
I met Thierry Bosquet in the 1980s through Philippe Lenaël, one of the first theatre and opera directors to specialise in Baroque historical staging. My meeting with Thierry immediately moved me.
Thierry Bosquet (born in 1937 in Uccle) turned out to be a true soul mate for me (and also for my wife Marleen)! His long and successful career as a painter and theatre designer brought him in many different countries, and even now he is still painting almost every day!
Thierry's imagination is entirely populated by characters from the 17th and 18th centuries, dressed in their own clothes, with their own gestures and expressions. They show us their lives and customs, their tastes, their wealth and poverty, and before we realize it, we feel the eternal echoes in our hearts when looking to them... Thierry is in love with this beauty, this theatricality, these curls and frills that were part of the life of the time!
Thus, in his house in Uccle, there are a dozen miniature baroque theatrical scenes, carefully and lovingly assembled and painted, in which all sorts of characters are active - each in a space of about a cubic metre... Everything lives and talks in it, we are in the middle of it, so to speak... This is not a meticulous "reconstruction", but a powerful fantasy, a communicative energy, which blows over this "old" design!
The "baroque" bursts out everywhere in this simple house: everything is theatrical, artfully arranged and applied - the eye does not know where to look first. Even the modest garden contains many baroque and classical sculptures, as you would expect...
The painting studio itself, on the top floor, is relatively small. Everywhere there are folders containing gouaches (landscapes, figures, allegories, still lifes) and drawings for theatre sets.
Thierry is not aiming to receive many visitors, he seems to like being alone in his kingdom. As a visitor, you are welcome, but he is not an exuberant guide in his domain... This modesty characterises him.
In 1993 we asked him to create the sets and costumes for Antonio Caldara's opera "I Disingannati" (a carnival opera based on Moliere's Misanthrope - Vienna, 1729), which we performed with LPB at the Innsbruck Early Music Festival, of which Réné Jacobs was then the artistic director. I can still see Thierry in front of me, there in the studio of the Landestheater, painting the costumes (yes!) in his dashing, baroque style. It was unforgettable and impressive - he was in his element! Later, in the nineties, he painted on a large window in our house in Asse: sometimes he worked with two brushes at the same time - one in each hand! In this way, the flowers came out of his imaginative brain incredibly quickly...
In 2001 he published a beautiful book on "Versailles Disparu" - On the one hand, he painted for this book many famous buildings and gardens still existing within this incomparable domain, but on the other hand, he also includes paintings of many constructions and views that unfortunately have disappeared by now.
In the spring of this year 2021, we asked Thierry Bosquet to create a painting for the 50th anniversary of La Petite Bande in 2022 - a painting that we planned to offer for sale to our public in a very high quality reproduction, in order to strengthen the financial support for our festive commemoration-programme. Without hesitation, he agreed to our request and, what is more, he donated the work to us, because of his affinity with our music and the special anniversary, in the hope that the orchestra might benefit from it...
In the light of the difficult Corona-period we are all going through, we suggested that he weave the motto "Musica Medicina Dolorum" into the scene - which he accepted and did with great elegance... So you can get a magnificent print of this painting from La Petite Bande, and thus support the ensemble in the realisation of its 50th anniversary programme.
- For a donation of 100€ (+11€ shipping costs, so a total of 111€) you receive the reproduction of Thierry's painting in a slightly reduced size (30x40cm)
- For a donation of 175€ (+11€ shipping costs, total 186€), you receive the reproduction in the original size (50x70cm)
Please transfer your payment to the account of:
"Votre Petite Bande"
IBAN: BE30 4310 6868 0111
BIC : KREDBEBB
Please clearly indicate the format you choose, and your postal address.
This print will be sent in a sturdy roll, together with a beautiful colour photo of Sigiswald, signed for you by him.
Herman Siebens, manager of the orchestra (herman@lapetitebande.be), will carefully follow up your order.
... Isn't this a somptuous Christmas-present for your friends and family?...
The "baroque" bursts out everywhere in this simple house: everything is theatrical, artfully arranged and applied - the eye does not know where to look first. Even the modest garden contains many baroque and classical sculptures, as you would expect...
The painting studio itself, on the top floor, is relatively small. Everywhere there are folders containing gouaches (landscapes, figures, allegories, still lifes) and drawings for theatre sets.
Thierry is not aiming to receive many visitors, he seems to like being alone in his kingdom. As a visitor, you are welcome, but he is not an exuberant guide in his domain... This modesty characterises him.
In 1993 we asked him to create the sets and costumes for Antonio Caldara's opera "I Disingannati" (a carnival opera based on Moliere's Misanthrope - Vienna, 1729), which we performed with LPB at the Innsbruck Early Music Festival, of which Réné Jacobs was then the artistic director. I can still see Thierry in front of me, there in the studio of the Landestheater, painting the costumes (yes!) in his dashing, baroque style. It was unforgettable and impressive - he was in his element! Later, in the nineties, he painted on a large window in our house in Asse: sometimes he worked with two brushes at the same time - one in each hand! In this way, the flowers came out of his imaginative brain incredibly quickly...
In 2001 he published a beautiful book on "Versailles Disparu" - On the one hand, he painted for this book many famous buildings and gardens still existing within this incomparable domain, but on the other hand, he also includes paintings of many constructions and views that unfortunately have disappeared by now.
In the spring of this year 2021, we asked Thierry Bosquet to create a painting for the 50th anniversary of La Petite Bande in 2022 - a painting that we planned to offer for sale to our public in a very high quality reproduction, in order to strengthen the financial support for our festive commemoration-programme. Without hesitation, he agreed to our request and, what is more, he donated the work to us, because of his affinity with our music and the special anniversary, in the hope that the orchestra might benefit from it...
In the light of the difficult Corona-period we are all going through, we suggested that he weave the motto "Musica Medicina Dolorum" into the scene - which he accepted and did with great elegance... So you can get a magnificent print of this painting from La Petite Bande, and thus support the ensemble in the realisation of its 50th anniversary programme.
- For a donation of 100€ (+11€ shipping costs, so a total of 111€) you receive the reproduction of Thierry's painting in a slightly reduced size (30x40cm)
- For a donation of 175€ (+11€ shipping costs, total 186€), you receive the reproduction in the original size (50x70cm)
Please transfer your payment to the account of:
"Votre Petite Bande"
IBAN: BE30 4310 6868 0111
BIC : KREDBEBB
Please clearly indicate the format you choose, and your postal address.
This print will be sent in a sturdy roll, together with a beautiful colour photo of Sigiswald, signed for you by him.
Herman Siebens, manager of the orchestra (herman@lapetitebande.be), will carefully follow up your order.
... Isn't this a somptuous Christmas-present for your friends and family?...
