Walter Vaes (1882-1958) - Stilleven

Beautiful still life by Walter Vaes.
Oil on canvas, mounted on board.
From a private Belgian collection.
Image size: 28.5 x 38.5 cm.

Walter Vaes was a Belgian artist, born in 1882 in Borgerhout and died in 1958 in Antwerp. He was a painter and etcher. He spent his early years in Liverpool, England. He studied painting and etching under P. Verhaert, an uncle by marriage. From 1900, he studied at the Academy in Antwerp under A. De Vriendt. He won the Prix de Rome in 1904. He travelled to Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany and Asia Minor. In 1902, he co-founded Eenigen, and in 1905, Kunst van Heden. During the First World War, he lived in Veere, Zeeland. His earliest works tended towards a somewhat literary romanticism. However, he very quickly became exclusively a painter of small still lifes, flower pieces and portraits. His canvases were painted with great fidelity to life and extraordinary virtuosity in the use of colour, and testify to his love of material beauty, delicate forms and harmonious colours. His portraits have a restrained, aristocratic air. While his paintings remained rooted in reality, his etchings sometimes conjured up a visionary world, as in the fantastic scenes created during the First World War. He is regarded as the leading representative of late, impressionistically tinged realism. He taught at the Academies and museums in Antwerp, Ghent, Liège and Brussels.