Early examples of the works of Raphaël de Buck are rare and this example, dating to around 1935 can be considered amongst the artist’s most important compositions from this period. It depicts an atmospheric coastal scene almost certainly in the area of the Belgian coastal town of La Panne. Raphaël De Buck has imbued this image with a warm light producing a sensitive and highly decorative image.
Raphaël de Buck was born in the city of Ghent in 1902 the son of the painter Leonard de Buck. His early studies were courtesy of his father who first instilled within the young Raphael a love of the arts. He showed such early promise that he was enrolled at the Academy of Ghent where his professor was the great Georges Minne. It was Minne, himself a painter of figures as well as being a sculptor, who persuaded De Buck to concentrate, for the most part, on genre pieces. He graduated the Academy in 1925 and established a studio in his home town. Initially he was employed as a book illustrator but soon his oils were garnering the attention of the public and critics alike. During the 1930’s and 1940’s he painted mostly figural subjects, usually women. His paintings, often sensual with a delicate eroticism, were immensely popular and achieved high prices during his lifetime. A painter in both oils and water based media he also executed landscapes, marines, circus subjects and still-lifes with an equal verve.
Raphaël de Buck died in Ghent in 1986 but his paintings can be seen today in numerous important private collections.
Lit; E. Benezit
Arto
P. Piron
