Willem Paerels
1878 - 1962
Willem Paerels first began painting whilst working as an apprentice in his father's workshop. At sixteen he left his native Delft to study paintings in Brussels and later, he took up Belgian nationality. To support his desires to become a painter, Paerels worked as a designer of furniture and ornaments for garments.
By 1900 Paerels began visiting Paris to study the works of the Impressionist painters, which became a major source of inspiration for his own painting. Following his travels, Paerels devoted himself entirely to painting and set himself up in a studio on the outskirts of Brussels For days at a time he carefully mastered the perfect rendering of light. The present work and many of his most celebrated paintings were executed around this time, when Paerel's palette brighted and his colours became more transparent.
Paerels first exhibited his work in 1902, by which time he had begun to embrace a more Fauvist style, employing purer colours and a more vivid palette. These works did not receive the same critical success, however the art collector Francois van Haelen supported Paerels financially and bought several paintings from him.
Between 1908 and 1909 Paerels produced several highly decorative interior paintings. He also started to use a bird's eye perspective and enhanced the contrasts between colour by applying them in a flat manner. As a member of the so-called 'Brabant Fauvists' he was patronised by the art dealer Georges Giroux and exhibited at his gallery from 1914 onwards.
Paerels was forced to remain in his natiev Holland throughout the First World War and during this time he opened his studio to teach younger students. His output immediately after the war is characterised by a darker, more sombre pallete and his compositions closely resemble the work of the Russian Constructivists. The decades following were largely spent travelling and teaching and from 1942 until 1955, Paerels taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Louvain. In his later works Paerels once again embraced a light, Impressionist style of painting.
Works by Paerels are now held in many collections, including the museums of Antwerp and Brussels, the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague and Boymans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.