Battaille Willem

Willem Battaille was a Belgian artist born in 1867 in Brussels and died in 1933 in Schaerbeek. He was a painter, draftsman, poster designer and graphic artist. He was educated at the Academies in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean and Brussels. He realized, among other things, Kempen and Flemish landscapes. The melancholy of the autumn and winter, the desolate of the deserted country roads and fields in the Kempen were especially subjects in his paintings. Before 1914 he worked in the Mol region. He therefore had an influence on the development of the Molse School. In 1907 he was involved in the organization of the International art exhibition in Mol, for which he also designed the subject for the poster of the exhibition. (A farm with a Lady chapel and an ox cart). After the First World War he often stayed on the coast (Ostend) and he also realized seascapes and navies. He had a dashing, realistic style with a luministic slant. He taught sculptures and antique figures at the Nijverheidschool (Ecole Industrielle) in Schaerbeek and was a member of the Cercle Artistique et Littéraire in Brussels. Works by him can be found in the Municipal Jakob Smits Museum in Mol and in the municipal collection of Schaerbeek. He is mentioned in BAS I and Two centuries of signatures of Belgian artists. (Piron)(BT)