Irène Hamoir | |
|---|---|
 Irène Hamoir, left, andLouis Scutenaire, right, in 1985 | |
| Born | (1906-07-25)25 July 1906 Saint-Gilles, Belgium |
| Died | 17 May 1994(1994-05-17) (aged 87) Watermael-Boitsfort, Belgium |
| Nationality | Belgian |
Irène Hamoir (25 July 1906 – 17 May 1994) was aBelgiannovelist andpoet, the leading female member of the Belgiansurrealist movement. Her poetry was published under thepen nameIrine, and she appeared asLorrie in the writings of her husband,Louis Scutenaire, and the works ofRené Magritte.
Born inSaint-Gilles, Belgium into a family with ties to thecircus, she worked as a secretary. As an adolescent, Hamoir was already militant in the Young Socialist Guards. Then in 1928, she met the Brussels surrealists (she would later portray them in rough outline as hooligans in her novelBoulevard Jacqmain [1953]; reprinted in 1996 by the Éditions Devillez).[1] She wrote her first poem,Métallique in 1925. At that time she first became involved with the burgeoning Belgian surrealist group forming around artists such as Magritte,Marc. Eemans [nl], Scutenaire,Marcel Mariën, andPaul Nougé. She married Louis Scutenaire in 1930. Her poems and tales, highly fantastical, were first collected in 1949 in a thin volume with a print run of 200 copies under the pseudonym Irine; in 1976, the collectionCorne de brune featured her contributions to periodicals and collective works, as well as the prefaces she wrote for her friends: this volume would enable one to better appreciate her humor.[2]
After Scutenaire's death in 1987, she published her recollections of their life together asMa vie avec Scut. She died inWatermael-Boitsfort in 1994.
Irène Harmoir legated the Belgium Museum of Fine Art with surrealistic works, such as these by Marc.
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