Marques Maria
Maria Marques is a Belgian artist, born in Bruges in 1929. She is a painter, watercolourist, draftsman, graphic artist and designer of ex-libris. She is the daughter of painter Germaine Bouckaert. From 1949 she became a pupil of Jules Danlos in Bruges and continued her education at a drawing school in Paris and completed her studies at the Academy in Leuven, under the direction of Jan Cobbaert, Jos Vanbekbergen, P. Mariën and Paul Van Eyck. She has realized landscapes, picturesque corners, still lifes and especially figures and portraits. She was influenced by Jugendstil and her works often exude poetic intimacy and symbolism. From 1993 the inspiration also came from the world of fairies and angels. She thus realized a whole series of life-size female 'Angels'. From the press: “M.M. worked through many methods and styles, without sacrificing her spontaneity and urge for perfection. Fascinated by beauty in people and landscape, she creates striking children's portraits and fairytale gardens” and “Her work testifies to fantasy, high sensitivity and above all to an inexhaustible joie de vivre”. In 1980 she received the Medal of Honor from the city of Leuven. From 1983 to 1986 she designed ex-libris through the ex-libris circle of Sint-Niklaas. In 2005 she followed a course in icon painting in the Abbey of Averbode, under the supervision of Joris van Ael. In 2010 she took part in the exhibition 'De Tiense School' in the Begijnhof cultural center in Diest. We can find work by Maria Marques in the museums in Leuven and Brussels, among other places. Until 2008 she lived in her Art Nouveau Dream House in Heverlee. She is listed in the Lexicon of West Flemish Visual Artists vi. (piron)