Every year on 1 January, many works enter the public domain. This means that their copyrights have expired so they can be (re)used without restriction. In Belgium, this happens automatically 70 years after the author’s death. In 2023, the copyright on works by Belgian authors who died in 1952 expired.
Sound archives
Each year, digitisation staff at the KBR select several works that enter the public domain and make them available on Wikimedia or Wikidata for people to use and get creative with.
As regards sound archives, the KBR specifically digitised recordings released by Lodewijk Mortelmans and Alexander De Taye on the Columbia label.
These are black records in lacquer gum (1890-1950) that until recently appeared only in the form of descriptions in our catalogue. Today, the sound clips are accessible through Wikimedia and were added to the Wikipedia pages of Louis Mortelmans and Alexander de Taye. In the context of the Public Domain Day 2024, KBR also digitised 25 scores by both composers that can now be accessed through our catalogue.
KBR still has 4,000 hours of digitised music in its collection, representative of musical life and jazz in Belgium during the first half of the 20th century; they will soon be accessible to the general public.
The work of Albert Daenens and Emile Vloors in the spotlight
As regards the prints as well as the coins and medals, we find Albert Daenens with his distinctive posters and Emile Vloors with his unique money notes.
Albert Daenens was a Belgian artist who was born and died in Brussels (1883-1952). He was an illustrator, painter and scenographer. Other than a mention of his name in the context of the summer exhibition of the art circle “Doe Stil Voort” in Brussels in 1917 and several oral testimonies, very little is known about his work. His wood and linogravures from the 1920s reveal a clear political and social commitment. He worked on the covers of the anarchist magazine Haro! of which he was the editor-in-chief. He was influenced by socially-engaged Belgian engraver and illustrator Frans Masereel and denounced the bourgeoisie, militarism and war. Between 1920 and 1923, he experimented with abstract compositions in which he tried to express his emotions and discover new elegant motifs.
Emile Vloors, born and died in Antwerp (1871-1952), was a painter and sculptor. He won several awards for his sculptures and served as director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp from 1923 to 1936. He is also known as the designer of the 1933 Art Deco notes of 100 francs or 20 belga, with the personification of abundance and medallion portraits of Albert I and Elisabeth on the front. The reverse side features the allegorical figures of the Meuse (designated Mosa on the note), the Scheldt (Scaldis) and the Albert Canal (a putto holding a fish in its arms) connecting the two rivers.
Special notes
However, the notes from the KBR collection capture the imagination for another reason besides their graphic aspect. Indeed, most of the notes in the Floors collection already physically feature the watermark SPECIMEN. The digitised notes in the collection therefore were not in circulation, they are examples; so they were not legal tender. Before entering into circulation, specimens are sent to all national banks, major commercial banks, post offices, bureaux de change at borders and any relevant company or institution.
Over time and when the note is removed from circulation again, these specimens no longer have a function. Some are destroyed, others are returned to their country of origin, while others end up on the collector’s market. It could well be that bank clerks clandestinely smuggled out the specimens of notes to sell to collectors. So that’s how they end up on the market, not through circulation.
Access to the Opac collections
The work of several Belgian artists and important figures added to the public domain in 2023 can be found in our Opac catalogue via the links below:
Access to the Wikimedia collections
KBR also offers access to the Wikimedia pages of the Belgian figures listed below, whose work entered the public domain in 2023:
- Emile Floors
- Pirart René
- Adelin Salle
- Lodewijk Mortelmans
- Alexander De Taye
- Constant Permeke
- Paul Cauchie
- Albert Daenens
- Leon Bartholomé
- Daeye Hippolyte
- Paul Collet