Eyskens Felix

Felix Eyskens (Antwerp 1882 – Deurne 1968). Painter. Trained at the Antwerp Academy under J. De Vriendt and F. Courtens (1891–1906) and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under F. Sabatté. He maintained a studio in Paris in 1904 and spent time in England and the Netherlands before returning to Belgium in 1913. He settled in Bornem, on the banks of the Scheldt. His body of work includes landscapes of Flanders and the Campine region, village and farmstead scenes, views of the Lier Beguinage, and snow scenes. His work reveals the influence of A. Baertsoen and E. Claus. He employed an Impressionist color palette, characterized by rich, generous paint application and a vibrant use of color. He sought to capture the materiality of objects through the paint itself as intensely as possible—a quality clearly evident in his still lifes. In his landscapes, the emphasis shifts to the atmospheric effects of light in nature. In both instances, he achieved this through a fluid painting style. After the death of his first wife, he remarried and settled in Ranst in 1919; there, he drew inspiration from the landscape of the Nete region and the nearby, picturesque town of Lier, with its Beguinage, courtyards, and whitewashed walls. Listed in CRICK, BAS II, and Twee eeuwen signaturen van Belgische kunstenaars (Two Centuries of Signatures by Belgian Artists). (Piron)