La Fleur en Papier Doré

Photos and words by Cliff Lucas.
Edited by Breandán Kearney.

Café Society is a photographic series which celebrates the spaces at the heart of Belgian beer culture. See more here.

La Fleur en Papier Doré (Het Goudblommeke in Papier in Dutch and The Gold Paper Flower in English) is a Brussels estaminet of note. It was once popular with artists and writers of both the COBRA surrealist movement and the Flemish art magazine Tijd en Mens. Contemporary Belgian author Hugo Claus celebrated his first marriage here. A monochromatic portrait of Tintin’s creator, Georges Rémi (Hergé), beer in hand, hangs above the bar, just opposite where the photograph was taken. A frame fastened to the entry door contains what are believed to be early sketches of Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte, who visited regularly, although the artist, poet, and trickster, Geert van Bruaene, who ran the café from 1944 until his death in 1964, was known to have playfully placed a counterfeit or two. Van Bruaene’s collection of artwork, photos, and other objects, whether created by himself or gifted by the numerous artists who frequented La Fleur en Papier Doré, remain untouched on the walls since the café’s classification as a listed building in 1997. The mismatched wooden tables and chairs with differing heights and varying levels of intricacy appear as chess pieces scattered across the black and white tiled floors. After a formal renovation in 2007, the “patina” of nicotine-soaked walls was preserved by mixing Lambic beer into the paint. The origin of the café’s name may not be known with certainty. If only these flowered walls could talk.