Lot 47: GEORGES BRASSEUR MINIATURE PORTRAIT PAINTINGS

GEORGES BRASSEUR MINIATURE PORTRAIT PAINTINGS: Georges Brasseur (1880 - 1950, Belgium), a pair of watercolor on ivory portraits, most likely marriage portraits of someone attached to his immediate family, each signed on the face and housed in gilded ebony frames with tortoise shell veneer, portraits: 3.375"h x 2.5"w, framed: 5.25"h x 4.5"w. BIOGRAPHY: Georges Brasseur (1880 – 1950, Belgium) was a highly-accomplished painter, craftsperson and designer who was equally at home painting young society girls as he was designing stained glass for Belgian churches. Motivated to learn his craft, Brasseur took evening courses in painting and decorating while working for 11 years as a craftsman at a decorator’s workshop where he designed stained glass and ornaments for churches. In 1905 left the workshop to work independently. Brasseur had enjoyed previous patronage from the Duke of Arenberg who acquired Brasseurs paintings and employed him to design tapestries and other decorative items and in 1910 awarded him the opportunity to decorate the main hall of the Palace of the Duke of Arenberg with battle scenes. At this time, he also completed commissions for churches as he continued to attend classes. In 1914, WWI began and Germany invaded Belgium, a neutral country; by January of 1918 Brasseur was captured, arrested and accused of espionage by the Germans. His sentence was 15 years’ hard labor and he was housed in the Prison de St. Gilles, Saint-Gilles, Belgium. He attained his liberty in 1918 at the end if the war and was heralded a hero. He spent the next 8 years successfully showing his work and painting portraits and landscapes throughout Belgium. In 1926 Brasseur was hired as the Director of the School of Painting and Sculpture at the Institute of Fine Arts of Medellín, Colombia. Once arriving, her found that the position, location and resources did not suit him and in 1927 he went to Bogota, from there, North America to Venezuela and finally to Caracas as a professor of drawing. By 1934 he was again in Belgium where he exhibited in Brussels with Galerie des Artistes Francais, led by Isy Brachot and Paul André. In 1946 he returned to Bogota, Colombia and had a massive exhibition at the National Library sponsored by the Ministry of National Education, through the Department of Cultural Extension and Fine Arts. Two years later he returned to Medellín and hung a series of landscapes, still-life paintings and portraits in the Museum of Zea. In 1950, he returned to Brussels in 1950 where he passed unexpectedly. Refs. Most of this biography has been paraphrased from: Van Broeck, Anne Marie. “Georges Brasseur: a Belgian Painter in Colombia.” Credential Historia, no. 95, Nov. 1997, Accessed 15 Dec 2016. Van Broeck cites an impressive bibliography used for her publication which includes: 1.) Dictionanire Biographique illustrate des artistes in Belgique depuis 1830. 2.) "The exhibition of the National Library: Georges Brasseur and his work". Cromos, Bogotá, 1946. 3.) BENEZIT, E. Dictionnaire critique et documents des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessineurs et Graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pairs for a group of French writers and ethicists. Volume 2, Paris: Gründ, 1976. 4.) CARDENAS, JORGE and TULIA RAMIREZ DE CARDENAS. Evolution of Painting and Sculpture in Antioquia. Museum of Antioquia, Medellín, 1986. 5.) Directorate of Cultural Extension. The Art in Antioquia. Volume 3. Medellín, 1991, pp. 9-10. 6.) GOOVAERTS, A. "Georges Brasseur". Progreso, Medellín, 1926, N. 1. 7.) HARDY, ADOLPHE. "Georges Brasseur Sa vie et son oeuvre". Savoir et Beauté Revue Interprovincile d'Art et d'Enseignement, Brussels, 1938, 3, pp. 95-100. 8.) Page 1 "The Belgian painter Georges Brasseur and his Colombian work". In: Chromos, No. 722 (1930). 9.) LONDON VELEZ, SANTIAGO. History of painting and engraving in Antioquia. Medellín: Universidad de Antioquia, 1995, pp. 165, 170 and 203. 10.) MASSE, JUDITH. "Georges Brasseur". Brabant, tourisme (September 1991), pp. 7-16. 11.) MOLINA LONDOÑO, LF "Agustín Grovaerts, representative of modernist architecture in Colombia". Cultural and Bibliographic Bulletin, 34, 1993, pp. 3-33. 12.) Museum of Antioquia, works of his collection. Volume 1. Medellín, Colina, 1994. PROVENANCE: Descended by inheritance to the artist’s grandson.