Octave Landuyt: much more than Van Marcke's seahorse

The 100-year-old artist and designer Octave Landuyt has literally thousands of works of art to his name: paintings, pastels, drawings, graphics, sculptures, jewellery, ceramics, design, tapestries, fabrics, record and CD covers, book covers, wine labels, stage and opera sets and costumes ...

Productive and inspired

The artistic career of this jack-of-all-trades from Ghent started in 1931, when he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kortrijk. He later became a drawing teacher, advertising artist and teacher of plastic education. In the late 1940s, Octave Landuyt combined two jobs. Besides being a teacher, he headed the development department at bathroom element wholesaler Van Marcke. Many of us probably stand eye-to-eye with an Octave Landuyt every day, without realising it. Through the seahorse he designed as the company's logo in 1949, which still proudly adorns its products today. Schools, factories and hospitals also have work by him. Like metal cabinets, desk tables or those famous round water fountains whose tap you have to operate by foot.

From the 1950s, the call of art gradually became louder. Day and night he was passionately busy, working in a wide variety of disciplines. Museums and private collections around the world hold works by him, from the United States to South Africa and from Brazil to Taiwan. The number of exhibitions and awards at home and abroad is impressive. Although even more than in Belgium, his name rings a bell abroad. At home, you can also find works by Octave Landuyt in public spaces. Four monumental round bas-reliefs in enamelled ceramics by him hang in the Porte de Namur metro station in Brussels. They depict the stages between birth and death and the mystery of life.

Several years ago, the artist was forced to put down his pencil. He no longer found the result of his last work satisfactory. But he has a wonderful career to look back on with pride and love. Just like the fine contacts with friends who regularly visited him at home in Destelbergen over the years: Paul Delvaux, Jacques Brel, Salvatore Adamo and, last but not least, King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola.

Octave Landuyt passed away in Ghent on 5 August 2024.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0 / Michiel Hendryckx