Industrial port - Oswald Poreau (1877-1955)

Oswald Poreau

Born in Schaerbeek in 1877, died in Waterloo in 1955.

An Impressionist with a free realism, he painted landscapes, industrial and harbor sites, flowers and portraits, and was an engraver and lithographer of the Belgian school.

Oswald Poreau trained at the Académie royale des beaux-arts de Bruxelles in both painting and architecture.
From 1895 to 1900, his painting masters were Joseph Stallaert and Joseph Quinaux, while his architecture master was Ernest Acker.

According to Georges Eekhoud, "Oswald Poreau's work gives us both an impression of power and harmonious progression".

He continued his training in Paris in 1905, settling into the bohemian milieu of Paris before returning to painting in the village of Barbizon. He returned to Belgium and traveled extensively throughout Europe (England, Germany, France and especially Brittany).

Most of his works were owned by the Belgian royal family, and can be seen in museums in Schaerbeek, Temse (Belgium), Bergen and Temse.

Our painting is dated 1954 and depicts the factories of Schaerbeek, a commune near Brussels.
Oswald Poreau dedicates several works to industry

"Dantesque vision. In a deluge of shadows and smoke in dark steel tones, a red-orange furnace roars inside an industrial building, whose silhouette we can only guess at".

From the right comes a locomotive, its plume tinged with the hues of hell, approaching on gleaming rails. The contrast between these hard lines of metal and the abundance of steam reflects Charles Bernard's (Maufras 1957) description of Oswald Poreau's work

He has found (...) tones of exquisite delicacy, pastes of light unctuousness, dosages of such finesse that one would think oneself transported into the unreal, if the firmness of the lines, the vigor of the structures that one feels everywhere present under the phantasmagorias of lighting, did not accuse a tangible reality, certain, but raised to the quality of a dream". and is part of the "Oswald Poreau" collection.