Rik Wouters

See also: Wouters

Rik (Hendrik) Wouters is a painter and Belgian Sculpteur born with Malines in 1882 and deceased with Amsterdam in 1916.

Wire of a sculptor-decorator of piece of furniture it starts to work as of the twelve years age in the workshop of his father, where it is exerted with the woodcarving. It follows then the courses of the academy the Malignant ones starting from 1897, then of the royal Académie of the Art schools of Brussels starting from 1900, in particular the course of " sculpture according to nature" given by Charles Van der Stappen.

It binds friendship with Fernand Verhaegen, registers the same year to it as him and Edgard Tytgat.

In 1905, it meets Nel, the model young woman for various artists, becomes his wife and the MUSE which it will never cease representing. Without incomes, the couple is soon constrained of going to live in the father of Rik, in Malines. Following tensions with this last, they return to Brussels, initially in a miserable housing of Saint-Jose-ten-Noode, then with Watermael-Boitsfort, where to look after the tuberculosis of Nel, they settle in 1907, rue de la Sapinière, edge of the Forêt of Look after, which will become the subject of good number of fabrics of Rik.

It obtains a price with the Godecharles contest with its sculpture “Daydream”.

At the beginning of its career, Rik Wouters, fascinated by the work of James Ensor, painted with the knife of dead natures and the interiors with figures where reign the same light as in the tables of the Master. He enormously draws with the watercolour, with the charcoal, of the studies the naked ones, portraits. Fact several tests of painting and the studies of light by using clear colors applied to paperboard, the fabrics being too expensive.

Insulated, he seeks his own way. He carries out a plaster bust of his friend Edgard Tytgat who will be cast only bronzes some well later.

As of 1908, its reputation of sculptor is established, it is invited to take part in several living rooms and receives an official subsidy of 500 Francs Belgian. In 1910, it carves the Insane Virgin , which is inspired by the dancer Isadora Duncan.

In painting, he discovers in 1911 the work of Cézanne through reproduction in black and white. He changes technique giving up the knife for the brush. It is only the following year which it can go to Paris and discover the work of the impressionists finally there. He admires much the fabrics of Cézanne and of Van Gogh, her colors are made more chatoyantes. Its work will be described as “Fauvisme brabançon”, when this name is invented by Fierens in November 1941.

It signs a contract with the Giroux gallery which provides him a monthly revenue in exchange of half of the product of the sale of its works, which gets finally a certain material safety to him. Rik Wouters enters then during a time of very great production, painting an about sixty fabrics in 1912. The exposure which is held with the gallery in 1914 brings him the dedication.

This same year, the First World War bursts, mobilized, it is found interned in a camp with the Netherlands. He suffers then from the primary symptoms of the cancer which will carry it and is hospitalized. He settles with Amsterdam in 1915 with Nel come to join it and continues to paint in spite of the pain. He loses an eye following an operation. He still carries out an exposure in February 1916 and dies a few months later at the 34 years age.

Most of its work painted is articulated around the representation of his wife in her multiple domestic activities.

One knows also the self-portraits of Rik Wouters. One is less with the current of those painted by his friends artists. Thus the museum of the Art schools of Brussels has a fabric of Fernand Verhaegen, gone back to 1910 and carrying the title " Rik Wouters and its modèle". There exist several other tables painted by Fernand Verhaegen and representing Rik, Nel and their Stella bitch. Edgard Tytgat, had crunched his/her two friends Rik and Fernand to him, accompanied by their wives, in a drawing with the Indian ink going back to 1907 and entitled " the League of the Walloon painters, Doe stil voort ".

One finds works of Rik Wouters in the museums of Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Ixelles and Liege.

External bonds

Oeuvres of Rik Wouters to [[royal Museum of modern art in Brussels]] the
another moulding of Domestic Concern has Brussels

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