Neige - Snow

Details

Willem Paerels (BELGIAN, 1878-1962)
Neige - Snow
signed 'W.M.Paerels' (lower left), and signed again and inscribed with title (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
100 x 80 cm.
Painted circa 1917-1918.

Provenance

Galerie Georges Giroux, Brussels, no. 4135.

Exhibited

(Probably) Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Eere Tentoonstelling 60ste verjaardag van de schilderijen van Willem Paerels, 10 December 1938- 2 January 1939, no. 11 (as 'Venster')

Special notice

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Lot Essay

When in 1914 during one of the trips to his parents in The Hague, World War I breaks out, Paerels is forced to stay in the Netherlands throughout the war. He rents a large apartment in Scheveningen, where he becomes befriended with many fellow refugees like for instance Rik Wouters and Frans Smeers. These contacts as well as the influence of the war bring a transition in his work. The use of colour, and applied technique still show the character traits of impressionism, the work of these years can be seen a clear examples of this important transitional period. The result of this search is the delightful blend of impressionism and Paerels' careful steps towards more fauvist paintings . His friend the writer Jan Greshoff states: "Within the artistic evolution of Willem Paerels the war formed a breaking point between two phases bound by a period of transition, search and doubt."(Serge Goyens de Heusch,Het impressionisme en het fauvisme in België, Antwerp 1988, p.374.)

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