Leo Bervoets (1892-1978) - In het café

Beautiful intimate painting by the Belgian artist Leo Bervoets. Bervoets was known for his circus and café interior paintings. It is an oil on panel painting measuring 28.5 x 22.5 cm, signed in the lower left corner. The painting was purchased by my father in the 1960s at Veilinghuis Mak van Waay in Amsterdam and has always hung in my parents' house.

Leo Bervoets

Leo Bervoets was a Belgian artist born in Antwerp in 1892 and died in 1978. He was a painter, draftsman, and watercolorist. He studied at the Academy in Antwerp under Ch. Mertens and Is. Opsomer. Even before World War I, he immersed himself in the lively world of dance halls, fairs, and circuses, and was well acquainted with the nocturnal port district. However, he remained always a quiet observer of this lively world, which he poetically and sensitively captured on his canvases. In the 1930s, he was a member of Moderne Kunst, alongside artists such as Paul Joostens, Edm. Van Dooren, Ernest Albert, and Oscar Verpoorten. He did not favor exhibiting and preferred to experience his art in the quiet and peace of his studio. He incorporated futurism and cubism through his feelings, his poetic and refined vision, thus recreating and elevating the image of reality. His works include landscapes, Antwerp harbor scenes, city street scenes, café interiors, figures on the margins of society: vagrants, outlaws, street children, barmaids, foordancers, but also studio interiors and still lifes. An excellent colorist, his drawings form a very interesting part of his oeuvre. According to the press: 'All this painting exudes a refinement in minor, because nowhere are intense colors or exuberant forms used. He composes his paintings in the true sense of the word, which always consist of small, delicate planes brought together in a subdued harmony,' and 'L.B. is a loner. Unnoticed and seemingly lost in the hustle and bustle of city life, he undertakes, like a silent philosopher, his long walks through the streets of Antwerp as soon as evening falls. He mainly observes the peculiar margins of society.' (A.J.J. Delen) He was also a member of the circle 'Als Ik Kan.' His work is included in the Museum in Antwerp and listed in BAS I and Two Centuries of Signatures of Belgian Artists. (Source: PIRON)