Prosper DE TROYER (1880-1961) - Lot 75

Prosper DE TROYER (1880-1961) Unidentified portrait. Pastel. Signed. 18 x 12.5 cm Note: Born in Saint-Nicolas in 1880, Prosper De Troyer trained at the Saint-Luc school in Oostakker before working in the studios of Van Biesbroeck, Matthias and De Pauw in Ghent, where he discovered restoration and portraiture. He studied with painter Willem Rogier at the Mechelen Academy, where he met Rik Wouters and Alfred Ost. His work, initially marked by realism and the influence of Eugène Laermans and Jacob Smits, evolved towards neo-impressionism, then Brabant Fauvism during the First World War. A member of the Doe Stil Voort circle, he rubbed shoulders with Félix De Boeck and Victor Servranckx. In contact with Paul van Ostaijen, whose portrait he painted, he then opened up to Marinetti's Futurism, who invited him to exhibit in Florence. Around 1920, influenced by Malevich, he turned to geometric abstraction and created Le Signal, a visual manifesto of emancipated Cubism. Returning to figurative painting, he developed a personal expressionism inspired by the New Objectivity, drawing on biblical and family themes. A member of the De Meivisch group in the 1940s, he remains a singular figure of Flemish modernism, oscillating between spiritual commitment and the quest for pure art.