Amazing Art | Paranormal Puzzles
This Coal Miner Learned How to Paint Thanks to ‘Spirit Voices’
The Amazing Story of Augustin Lesage
Some people are born with talent. Others learn through and from a variety of means. And then some have it thrust upon them. For one particular man, since the early 1910s, he credited the voices of spirits with his unorthodox leap into the world of art.
On August 9, 1876, in Saint-Pierre-less-Achuel, Pas-de-Calais, Augustin Lesage was born into a coal miner family. Lesage himself began working in the coal mine in the far north of France from an early age. Then, as his claims go, in 1911, at 35 years old, he was working in the coal mine when he asserted to hearing a voice from the darkness speak up. According to him, the voice declared:
“One day, you will become a painter.”
It is worth noting that, up until this point in his life, Lesage had never trained nor pursued any form of art. His only connection to art beforehand was when he visited the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille museum in Lille during his military service. Upon hearing it, Lesage came to believe that the voice was that of his late younger sister, who had passed away years earlier at the age of three. The voice further instructed him on what he should paint, what supplies he needed, and even where he could get them. From that point, Lesage went to work on his craft. By the following year, in January 1912, Lesage began hearing additional voices. According to him, despite his having never painted before, these spirits encouraged him to do so.
‘Do not worry about insignificant details,’ they [the voices] said. ‘We are working through your hands.’
Lesage went to work on his paintings, with a particular early canvas taking him two years to complete. Then, his art-making was halted when WWI happened, only resuming in 1916. By 1923, he financially supported himself exclusively through his artistic endeavors and also as a spirit medium. His style evolved to complex, colorful images that featured neatly laid-out compositions that were often symmetrical or architectonic in design throughout his career. The rows of patterns and or figures in his work were reminiscent of Egyptian and Oriental architectural forms.
Regarding how he decided what to portray, Lesage stated that he only ever let the spirits instruct him on what to paint and what supplies to use for that specific work. This aspect of his craft would carry on for his entire career. In addition to his art, Lesage went on to also serve as a medium in séances.
Later, after his research into the unconventional work of self-taught ‘mediumistic’ artists led him to acquire such pieces, French modern artist and collector Jean Dubuffet also procured several of Lesage’s paintings.
In the late 1920s, Lesage performed public demonstrations of his skills through spiritual guidance while also being observed by scientific researchers fascinated by his works’ spiritualistic aspect.
Throughout his years, Lesage continued his art-making right up until his eventual death on February 21, 1954. At the end of his life, Lesage had amassed about 800 paintings. Overall, his compositions are considered part of the spiritualistic movement in art, alongside other Medium-Outsider artists. Today, Lesage’s pieces are held in France by the Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art.
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Nicole Henley is an East-coast true-crime writer and storyteller who’s into unsolved mysteries as well as marvels of history.
