Colot Robert

Robert Colot was a Belgian painter, born in Brussels in 1927 and died in Jette in 1993. He was educated at Sint-Lucas in Brussels. He made his debut in 1942. He made still lifes, interiors, figures, nudes, beach scenes and landscapes. In the beginning he worked in sombre tonalities, with brown predominating, similar to the style of P. Paulus and M. Bollé. He found his inspiration in the circus world and working-class life. Around 1955 his work became more luministic. His style evolved into Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and he sometimes ventured into Pointillism. From the press: 'He paints what fascinates him; a beautiful nude, whether or not inhabited landscapes, unadorned still lifes with fruit, flowers and sometimes a mirror, and above all a large number of portraits. The women he paints are elegant and wear beautiful hats, as a sign of their social background. But even when he paints a peasant woman, he cannot make her ugly. He is too fond of beauty for that. All his life he has painted workers, rough men at work, whom he always represents individually. This loner is not one to paint groups. He loves the forest and the sea and children, preferably those who hang out in the working-class neighbourhoods.' Robert Colot exhibited in 1961 and 1963 at the Le Régent gallery in Brussels. In 1998 a retrospective was held at the town hall in Schaerbeek. In the same year there was an exhibition at the gallery Le Bercail in Izel-sur-Semois. A monograph on the artist is: Robert Colot (1927-1993), written by D. Paternoster and published by Editions Art in Belgium (Ohain-Lasne) in 2003. He is listed in Artists and galleries, fourth (2000) and fifth ( 2004) edition and in Two centuries of signatures by Belgian artists. (Piron)