Milo DARDENNE ‘Men and carriage after haymaking’ painting oil on canvas

Milo Dardenne was born in Houyet in 1938. Unwilling to study, at the age of 18, he abandoned his family to live on his art in Paris. The song and the drawing. During the day, he sketches the portraits of onlookers, in the evening, he animates the small bistros of Paris with his guitar. He competes in the Obourg festival with Frédéric François, he is ranked second. Six months later, back in his native Ardennes, he accepted a position as an educator in Neufchâteau. By now earning a living, he can finally devote himself to his passion, painting. Despising the bourgeois class, the themes addressed in his paintings are the same as those addressed in his songs: fight against injustice, fraternity, praise for calm and silence. He paints the little people of Ardennes as he sang them at the time. Milo Dardenne paints the deep Ardennes with which he is in love. He truly cherishes the world of the forest, hunting and animals. His favourite subjects are the characters of this Ardennes of yesteryear. By exaggerating the proportions, he gives relief to his painting and the action of the scene. The pile of paint that is treated with large brush strokes, reveals a sense of matter and life to its subjects. Influenced by Canstant Permeke and Albert Raty, the artist naturally paints simple and refined shapes of every detail, favouring in his eyes the essential, the action. Source: Chaidron Foundation