Leon Spilliaert (1881 - 1946) is the artist of troubling solitudes and infinite perspectives. His work is unclassifiable. He feeds off the symbolic pieces of Redon, Ensor, Verhaeren or Maeterlinck, and yet his work extends beyond the Belgian symbolism that he helps to establish. His bare landscapes announce minimalism; the faces of his portraits, hollowed out by chiaroscuro, border on expressionism. For the first time in 40 years in France, the Musée d'Orsay is returning to Spilliaert's work. Already presented at the Royal Academy in London, the exhibition focuses on the period 1900 - 1919, artistically intense for the Belgian, and presents his most radical works. Free of all artistic rules, he experimented to exhaustion with different techniques to better explore his favourite themes. Whether it be the silhouettes of Ostend, solitary faces or almost ghostly landscapes, Spilliaert paints with a form of melancholy almost nightmarish. Yet from the shadows and black comes a form of light that illuminates his characters differently, and gives us a new perspective on loneliness.