Armand Simon was a Belgian surrealist artist whose work often explored themes of eroticism and fantasy. Having grown up in the village of Pâturages in western Belgium, he went on to study science at the Athenaeum in Mons, where he met the poet Achille Chavée and the writer Fernand Demoustier, better known under the pen name of Fernand Dumont. With them, he became a student at the L’Université Libre de Bruxelles, but abandoned his studies after the first year. In 1930 Chavée and Demoustier introduced him to surrealism, and Simon produced his first surrealist-inspired drawings in 1933. Their mixture of cruelty and eroticism evokes Pierre Molinier and Max Walter Svanberg, often depicting fantastic creatures and dreamlike scenarios, reflecting his vivid imagination and literary influences.

Simon was known for his reclusive lifestyle, choosing to live in relative isolation rather than engaging with the broader art world. Despite this his art gained recognition, and he corresponded with other artists, including the poet Franz Moreau. In 1940 he contributed to L’invention collective, a surrealist publication founded by René Magritte and Raoul Ubac. After the death of his friend Fernand Demoustier in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945 and a divorce after a short-lived marriage, Simon withdrew further into solitude, dedicating himself entirely to his art.

Apolitical and marginal, Armand Simon lived the life of a recluse in Pâturages, his village in the heart of the Borinage. Despite requests he participated little in his exhibitions, preferring to stay at home. However, he spent a lot of time corresponding with other artists, notably the poet Franz Moreau. The satirical cartoonist Serge Poliart, who met Simon in 1972, recalls that he lived in extraordinary simplicity, surrounded by more than twenty thousand books. For a long time ‘the hermit of the Borinage’ had lived on his mother’s pension, but when she died he survived on as little as 150 Belgian francs a month.

In 1973, thanks to his friend the painter Henry Lejeune, Armand Simon met the singer Julos Beaucarne, then at the height of his popularity, who brought his work to the wider world. His drawings started to sell and he no longer had any material worries. The last eight years before his death in a home in Frameries were enormously productive, leaving a legacy of hundreds of drawings, mostly incorporating symbolic elements of sexuality.

We are very grateful to our Russian friend Yuri for introducing us to the work of this artist, and for supplying most of the images.