Walter VAES (1882-1958) - Lot 109

Walter VAES (1882-1958) View of Antwerp, gouache on paper. Signed, dated 1921. 30 x 22 cm. Note: Belgian painter and aquafortist born in Borgerhout, Walter Vaes trained with Piet Verhaert, then at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp under Albrecht De Vriendt. Winner of the Prix de Rome in 1904, he traveled to Italy, sometimes in the company of Jules Schmalzigaug, before joining the Eenigen and L'Art Contemporain circles. A refugee in Veere during the First World War, he then exhibited in Belgium and abroad, notably in Pittsburgh (1923) and at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw (1924). Appointed to the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1924, he joined the Royal Flemish Academy in 1938. His pictorial work is rooted in late Impressionist realism, covering landscapes, still lifes, portraits and urban views. A remarkable engraver, Vaes developed subtle etchings, sometimes visionary and imbued with fantasy, evoking James Ensor or Jérôme Bosch, as in his Insecte malfaisant (1925).