Edouard Léon Théodore Mesens (1903-1971) was a Belgian writer, artist, and gallerist who started his artistic career as a musician. He followed in the Dutch tradition of taking on three initials and is best known as E.L.T. Mesens. In 1919, at the age of 16, he moved to Paris where he encountered Surrealist artists such as Tristan Tzara, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and Man Ray. He also met Erik Satie, whose radically modern music was a huge influence on Mesens and Magritte. In 1920 Mesens moved back to Belgium where he began working with many of the artists associated with Belgian Surrealism, most closely with Magritte. After returning to Paris 1921, Mesens kept in regular contact with Belgian artists in order to relay the artistic happenings in Paris and the French Surrealist movement.

1. Marie. Brussels: Didier Devillez Éditeur, 1993.
2. E.L.T. Mesens, Garage. Brussels: Edition “Music,” 1926.
3. Collective Inventions: Surrealism in Belgium. Allmer and Hilde Van Gelder, eds. Belgium: Leuven University Press, 2007.
4. E. L. T. Mesens, Troisième Front: Poèmes de Guerre; Suivi de Pièces Détachées (Third Front: Poems of War; Detached Pieces). London: London Gallery Editions, 1944.