Ferdinand Schirren (1872-1944) - Fauvistisch landschap met abstracte kleurvelden - omgeving Linkebeek

Ferdinand Schirren (1872–1944) was a Belgian painter, draughtsman, watercolorist, and sculptor. He is known as the first Belgian Fauvist and as one of the important watercolor painters of his period. As an artist, he influenced, among others, Rik Wouters. Schirren was briefly together with Nel, Rik Wouters’ later life partner, shortly after the turn of the century.

His parents were Jews from Riga who emigrated to Antwerp in 1864. In June 1876 the family moved from Antwerp to Anderlecht. His artistic education began at age twelve with a year of evening classes at the Anderlecht drawing school. This training was later continued by daytime studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. After completing his studies, he went to work with Jef Lambeaux, the founder of the avant-garde group Les XX.

In 1898 he, together with Auguste Oleffe, Louis Thevenet and Willem Paerels, founded the group Labeur, which would organize an annual exhibition until 1907. At their first exhibition in 1898 Schirren exhibited the sensational portrait bust of the Russian theosophist Helena Blavatsky, a gypsum sculpture with a tendency toward geometric forms.

During his period as a sculptor, Schirren had only sporadic oil paintings in a simple realistic style. However, his sense of color was already present. From 1904 he mainly focused on drawing and oil paint. He had a fondness for portraiture, nudes, and intimate scenes.

That same year he moved with his wife Maria Smeets to Linkebeek. In Linkebeek he was part of the Calevoeters, a close group of friendly artists around beer-brewer and patron François Van Haelen and the free studio L’Effort,[21] without there being talk of an artistic “school.” They were also called the “Brussels colorists” or the “Zenne painters.” Besides Schirren, Rik Wouters, Edgard Tytgat, Charles Dehoy, Herman Teirlinck, Auguste Oleffe, Louis Thevenet, Willem Paerels, Jean Brusselmans, Anne-Pierre de Kat, Jos Albert, Louis Thevenet, Médard Verburgh, Philibert Cockx, and Jehan Frison were among the most important members of this circle.

In the spring of 1905 Schirren took part in the Salon of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in Paris with four sculptures. Here he encountered the works of Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, and André Derain, which caused a scandal at this exhibition. Their works were a reaction against the academism in which Impressionism had fallen. At the Autumn Salon of 1905 these artists were named “Fauves” and their movement came to be called Fauvism.

This encounter was an epiphany for Schirren. He saw pure color as a means to construct form, initially without contours. The intense colors were expressive and synthetic and no longer realistic. By the end of the year he painted the portrait of art collector Meyer, which later became known as the first Belgian Fauvist painting and made Schirren immediately the first Belgian Fauvist.

In 1906 Schirren began, as a self-taught artist, to make watercolors. In this rapid medium he could best express his urge for spontaneous expression; corrections were not possible. Color provided the construction through neighboring elongated color blocks in primary colors.

From 1916 he prepared for a large solo exhibition, which he was offered in 1917 at the Galerie Georges Giroux, where he could exhibit more than 100 works. At this exhibition his talent as a painter was first recognized. Color would remain essential for the rest of his life in shaping his synthetic works. Georges Giroux offered Schirren a lucrative exclusivity contract, replacing Rik Wouters who had died in 1916.

Fauvism had been superseded and had given way to Expressionism. Schirren did not participate in that movement and sought his own path, with a fondness for light and pure color. On that path toward the total liberation of the poetry of form and color lies his collaboration with the poet and gallerist Paul van Ostaijen. Van Ostaijen bought many of Schirren’s works in the mid-1920s and exhibited his work at Galerie A la Vierge Poupine.

The works offered at this auction date from his early Fauvist period. Noteworthy is the free and rich use of color.

ARTIST: Ferdinand Schiren - signed with studio stamp
MEDIUM: Watercolor on paper
DIMENSIONS: 35x27 cm
DATE: circa 1910
CONDITION: Fair. Some chips and small cracks at the edge. Not framed."