Maurice Seghers (1883-1959) - Molen in de duinen // Visserssloep (Knokke - Nieuwpoort) - dubbelzijdig werk

The Antwerp sea painter Maurice Seghers (1883-1959) was born into an artistic family. Unlike his father - the shipbroker/sea painter Henri Seghers Jr. (1848-1919) - he was allowed to attend the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Starting from 1892, he spent summers with his parents at the family villa 'De Schuit' in the then-village of Knokke. Here, he became acquainted with the local fishing industry.

The Heist and Blankenberge ships still landed on the beach every day. After his training at the Antwerp Academy, he regularly stayed in Nieuwpoort from 1908 onwards. The entire Flemish coast exerted a great attraction on the young Seghers. He found much inspiration in the harbors of Oostende and Zeebrugge, with their daily arriving and departing fishing boats.

During the First World War, he stayed in southwest England, in Barnstaple at the mouth of the Taw River. Immediately after the war, he first lived with his wife Bertha De Bom and daughter Louisa in Antwerp, before moving to Ostend in 1920. In 1932, he settled again in Antwerp/Berchem, where he remained until his death in 1959.

He developed into a talented impressionist realist, painting with a bold handwriting and a bright southern color palette. Besides being a painter of oil paintings, gouaches, and watercolors, he worked as a documentary draftsman and etcher of the slowly but surely disappearing professional sailing. Additionally, he was an excellent ship model builder and was closely involved in the founding of the National Maritime Museum in Antwerp in 1952.

Artist: Maurice Seghers - signed - area around Knokke and Nieuwpoort.

Medium: Oil paint on panel - double-sided work

DATERING: c. 1910

Dimensions: 60x40 cm (without frame)

Condition: Very good. Not framed.