Hauptinhalt

Marie-Christine Claes

Summary of the contribution

During the Second World War, the Belgian Documentation department (the forerunner to the photo-library of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage) wanted to prevent that the Germans continue their photographic inventory of the Belgian artistic heritage, started in 1914-1918. During the First World War, the occupant had taken 12.000 photographs in Belgium. After the war, these photographs enabled publications in Germany, what had been felt like a spoliation by the Belgian art historians.

In 2015, we will celebrate the 50 years of the death of the director of the Service of Belgian Documentation, Paul Coremans. Dr in chemistry, he was also manager of the Belgian Physics and Chemistry Research Laboratory. During the Second World War, he regarded the inventory as a priority, considering the risks of destruction. Our documentation department is especially grateful to him, because he sacrificed his own researches and devoted himself primarily to the establishment of the photographic record of our works of art. This will enable to take almost 160.000 photographs.

He has profited from the financial support of two organizations, the Restoration of the Country General Commission, and the General Commission for passive air protection, which obtained the agreement of the German authorities. The first one, the General Commission for passive air protection, was an organism created in 1937, to organize the protection of the buildings and the population in case of aerial attacks. While photographing the monuments and works of art, the team contributed to implement protection measures.

1. Photographers and scientists taking sacks of sand in their motor coach with the intention of protecting stained-glass windows. Paul Coremans is a member of the team.

Masterpieces from museums of Antwerpen, Bruges and Brussels are put in safety in the Castle of Lavaux-Saint-Anne, to avoid their destruction or to prevent them to be stolen by the Nazis. All the paintings were conserved in the cellars. This castle was chosen because of his situation, far from industrial areas like Antwerpen, Liège or Charleroi. The choice was especially good, when we have a look at the map of the bombs fallen on Belgium. The service of Documentation of the Royal Museums of Art and History realized in this castle 2785 photographs of works of arts, principally paintings.

2. The taking of photograph of a painting, in 1943. The cliché (B55141) is still in our photo library. It is a painting by Gerard David, from the Groeningemuseum of Bruge.

In the same times, photographic missions were lead in all Belgium, with many difficulties to find vehicles. Any mission required the authorization of the German authorities. Some great “expeditions” were carried out in all the Belgian provinces: a motor coach picked up some twenty people, photographers and art historians, to photograph and document works of art.

3. Mission in Leau, with a wooden scaffolding, in 1943.

A series of missions will be devoted to 3962 removed church bells, before their departure in Germany. An inventory number was painted on the bells. A letter indicates the datation of the bell, and a number in roman letters indicated the Province.

4. Church bells in the harbour of Brussels, in summer 1943.

The main photographer of church bells is Marcel G. Lefrancq, who will become after the war a famous surrealist artist. In 1943, he will be arrested by German military authorities after anonymous denunciation. He was suspected of terrorist activities, and, after almost six weeks in jail in Mons, he was released for lack of evidences, thank to the intervention of Paul Coremans.

Since November 1940, missions were devoted to stain-glass windows. 6000 black and white negatives and 300 colour pictures were taken.

In June 1941, an agreement is signed between the Museums and The Restoration of the Country general Commission, an organism responsible for the reconstruction of destroyed buildings. New photographic missions are realized. In addition to official photographers working for the museums, others officious photographers are engaged. They were not getting paid by the hours, but by the pieces (by the numbers of negatives). One of them was Clement Dessart, who travelled in the Provinces of Namur, Liège and Luxembourg, taking all his material with him on his bike.

5. Clément Dessart in 1944 in the Province of Luxembourg with his camera 13x18

These independent photographers were working in tandem with art historians from the same area. Clement Dessart was working with Arsene Geubel, still living in Neufchateau.

After the war, the photographers and the scientists had to make a declaration about their activities and their behaviour during the war. Thanks to these documents, we learned that some of them took advantage of their activities to carry out acts of resistance: helping intelligence services, printing false identity-cards, hiding aviators or parachutists, reproducing maps…

All these photographs will be particularly useful after the war to reconstitute damaged works. They will remain, in certain cases, the only witnesses of destroyed works of art. In many cases, German photographs from the First World War and Belgian photographs from the Second World War were used for restoration documentation. For the buildings as well, photographs were testimony for victims to get a indemnity.

In November 1942, to increase the collection, Paul Coremans wrote a letter to all the members of the association of professional photographers, to ask them whether they would agree to sell negatives whose subject was buildings, works of art or events in Belgium. The agence Acta, established in Brussels, sold 1300 negatives. Some of them were related to the war. Jacques Hersleven sold his collection of negatives, about works of art, but also reportages about ceremonies and the royal family. Paul Becker, who was established as photographer in Brussels since 1890, sold 25.000 clichés.

In 1946, Paul Coremans, commanding officer in the infantry, travelled in Germany to recover the Belgian works of art. The famous Belgian art historian Raymond Lemaire, future founder of Icomos, the international council for Monuments and Sites, an organization belonging to Unesco, was also officer with a same aim. He had a statute of plenipotentiary minister.

After the war, Paul Coremans has written a rapport about the activities of his services, with maps of the photographic missions. It was one of the sources for a publication from the General Commission for passive air protection.

After Second world war, the photolibrary found herself worth nearly 170.000 additional negatives More than hundred seventeenth prints were realized. Today, all these photos are still useful for researchers, restorers and managers of our heritage, and they enable, as it is the case today, profitable exchanges on a European level.