« Surrealism cannot be orthodox, nor limited, nor monopolized by a sectarian group that sees only one side of it. It belongs to all those who carry it within them, just as it belongs to Bach, to Breughel, to Lautréamont ».
The main themes of Louis Cattiaux’s paintings include magical, fantastic, and religious subjects. He also turned towards alchemy and the quest for the absolute, which renewed the subjects of his works. His paintings reflect a deep metaphysical and spiritual concern.
Louis Cattiaux primarily used two painting techniques. First, he developed a very personal knife painting technique that requires a lot of time. With this technique, the paint becomes matter. Knife painting demands a more synthetic vision of the work and suggests rather than accurately represents. Courbet is often considered the pioneer of this technique, but it seems that this method dates back to Titian, as reported by Vasari. Then, he abandoned this technique to explore other methods.
«L’arbre de vie» – 56 x 46,5cm
«La belle au bois dormant ou l’alchimie reposant» – 73,5 x 100cm
Dessin
Le jugement dernier – 81 x 60cm
«Le Mage» – 55 x 46cm
«La pierre philosophale» – 60 x 92,5cm
«Le Prince persan» – 55 x 38cm
«Vierge byzantine» – 33,5 x 19,5cm
Dessin
Vierge cubiste – 73 x 54cm
Vierge à l’enfant – 33,5 x 19,5cm
Le maître et l’oiseau – 22 x 16cm
Vierge à l’enfant – 41 x 33cm
Dessin
La petite danseuse – 26 x 18,5cm
«Il neige» – 19 x 21cm
L’arbre bleu – 22 x 32,5cm
«La forêt philosophique» – 65 x 92cm
Infante blonde – 30 x 21,5cm
Dessin
«Les deux magiciens et le fantôme» – 22 x 33cm
«Descente de croix» – 15,5 x 24cm
«Portrait pour le Message Retrouvé» – 33 x 24cm
«Le jugement magique» – 33 x 24,5cm
«Le silence est d’or» – 24 x 16cm
«La perle du pacifique» – 105,5 x 50cm
Visage du Christ – 9 x 9cm
Dessin
«La Vierge solaire» – 33 x 22cm
«La sortie de l’âme» – 20 x 34cm
«Les deux magiciennes reines» – 20 x 34cm
Vitrail – 27 x 16cm
Dessin
Dieu le père – 33,5 x 19,5cm
«L’arbre de Noël» – 81 x 60cm
«L’eternel féminin ou l’Eve hivernale» – 33 x 20cm
«Le danseur fantôme» – 27,5 x 35cm
«Jonas et la baleine» – 24 x 41cm
Cour du château de Pallandt – 27 x 35cm
«Les lavandières» – 31 x 29,5cm
«Le gendarme et la gitane» – 28,5 x 32cm
Dessin
St Joseph – 27 x 19cm
«La Vierge noire» – 102 x 76cm
«La Magicienne céleste» – 55,5 x 33,5cm
«Le cygne noir» – 27 x 35cm
«Maria paritura» ou la Vierge à l’infini – 100 x 73cm
Le Charmeur de serpents – 16 x 24cm
«Le comte de Cagliostro régénéré par la grâce de Dieu» – 35 x 22cm
Dessin
«L’Enfant Roi» – 50 x 65cm
Le tombeau de Virgile – 33 x 21cm
«Il les créa mâle et femelle» – 16,5 x 43cm
Vierge voilée à l’enfant – 27 x 19cm
Dessin
«La fécondation de la vierge» – 36,5 x 27,5cm
«Le Christ après les 40 jours de jeûne» – 26,5 x 22cm
«Le pêcheur» – 27 x 57,5cm
L’Annonciation – 50 x 65cm
Vierge à l’enfant – 27 x 19cm
Peintre au chevalet – 38 x 46cm
Scène dans le temple – 22 x 27cm
Dessin
Le coq et le serpent – 22 x 26cm
Coucher de soleil en hiver –19,5 x 33cm
«La magicienne ou la faiseuse d’elémentals» – 26,5 x 19cm
Crépuscule sous la neige – 46 x 55cm
Dessin
«La Vierge noire» au livre ouvert – 46,5 x 33cm
«La Naissance de Vénus» – 65 x 81cm
«La Vénus céleste ou la force des pentacles» – 24 x 29cm
«La voleuse d’enfants» – 92 x 60cm
«La leçon d’alchimie» – 35 x 27cm
«Le magicien et les golems» – 41,5 x 33cm
«La Confrontation des lumières» – 66 x 93cm
«Vierge germinante dans la splendeur du vert» – 81 x 60cm
Vierge à l’enfant – 24 x 21,5cm
Dessin
Portrait de Lanza del Vasto – 32 x 18cm
«Le magicien à la pierre ou l’alchimiste» – 63 x 31,5cm
«Neptune» – 26,5 x 19cm
«La Congratulation des anges» – 35 x 27cm
Portrait – 27 x 22cm
«Magicienne aux deux golems» – 27 x 19cm
Dessin
«40° centigrades» (couteau) – 92 x 73cm
«Portrait du poète Louis de Gonzague Frick» (couteau) – 75 x 56,5cm
«La Vierge attentive ou la Vierge à l’étoile» (couteau) – 56 x 50cm
Le passage – 65 x 50cm
«Le prophète» – 18,7 x 14,8cm
«Apparition fantastique au soleil levant» – 22 x 27cm
Le Saint-Suaire – 15 x 15cm
«L’ange de la mort» – 102 x 67cm
«Le vrai mystère de la passion» – 72,5 x 60cm
Dessin
«Christ est l’Adam régénéré» – 22 x 15,8cm
Portrait de Geneviève Manciet – 27 x 22cm
Paysage de montagnes enneigées – 22 x 27,5cm
© 2025 All rights reserved | Jean-Christophe Lohest
« Louis Cattiaux is still the learned and lyrical magician of color. Faithful to the small format, he puts a world into an apple and an entire metaphysics into the incomparable transparencies of his paste. His angels confronting each other, his Virgin, his confrontation of lights are heavy with esoteric intentions but also with purely plastic qualities. What distinguishes Cattiaux is a great joy, a great ease of expression; he seems to paint while playing and hits the target squarely; he pretends to dance and laugh, yet one realizes that he thinks, weighs, works, and achieves ».
In his mysterious street-front shop, Louis Cattiaux (1904 – 1953) painted his strange and magnificent canvases, featuring hieratic virgins surrounded by forgotten symbols. He painted them in a rich, dense, and extremely colorful medium. He claimed to have rediscovered the secret of the ancient painting material of the Van Eyck brothers, a secret of the craft that painters of old passed down from mouth to ear and from master to disciple. His art was sacred, and his canvases resembled pentacles.
His friends wondered: « Who is he? » and while they could not answer the question precisely, they nonetheless thought: « He is not like us ». Cattiaux, what was this secret life that shone within you? Had you discovered the jewel of eternity? Had you unraveled the enigma of this world?
