PAUL MATHIEU (1872-1932)

Oil on canvas

Signed

50.00 cm wide   40.00 cm high

19.69 inches wide  15.75 inches high

Paul Mathieu was born in 1872 in Sainte Josse-ten-Noode, a suburb of Brussels, the son of a stonemason. He enrolled at the Ecole Normale des Artes et Dessin in Sainte Josse at the age of twelve, subsequently working as a freelance draughtsman.

He continued however with his painting and in 1873, at the age of 21, one of his works was accepted at the Brussels Salon, and he also exhibited the following year at the Universal Exposition in Antwerp.

In 1896 Mathieu was employed as a teacher at the Academie des Beaux Arts in Brussels, and this finally allowed him to concentrate more fully on his painting. This period marked a decisive point in his artistic career, where he abandoned the brilliantly coloured still lives of his formative years, in favour of ’plein air’ paintings for which he is best known.

In 1911 he, with Alfred Bastien, was commissioned to create a panorama depicting life in the Belgian Congo; he and Bastien travelled there and produced a work 115 meters long. This was exhibited at the Universal Exposition in Ghent in 1913.

Mathieu was exiled to France during the First World War, where he painted extensively in Paris and the Ille de France area, especially along the banks of the rivers Seine, Marne, and Loire. His work became more influenced by the Impressionists and their treatment of light, his works evoking a wonderful sense of solitude and luminosity. The French newspaper Le Figaro, praised Paul Mathieu’s work for its ‘sincere and powerful impressionist vision’.
Paul Mathieu was created a Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur for his contribution to the arts. He died in1932.

His works can be found in museums in Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, Liege and Courtai.

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