Maurice Charles Louis van Essche (South African, 1906-1977)


Still life signed 'van essche' (upper left)oil on canvas 53 x 63cm (20 7/8 x 24 13/16in).
|Maurice van Essche was born in 1906 in Antwerp, Belgium. In 1924, he enrolled in the prestigious Brussels Academy of Fine Art, where he studied under James Ensor, a key figure of the Belgian avant-garde and pivotal in the development of Expressionism. Another important influence on the young artist was Henri Matisse, who agreed to tutor him after the two men met by chance in an art supply shop in Cannes.Van Essche was finally able to pursue his artistic career full time in 1939 after he won a commission from the Belgian government to travel to the Congo and paint pictures of the landscape and local traditions. Van Essche was prevented from returning home by the outbreak of the Second World War and Germany's occupation of Belgium. Instead he and his family moved to Cape Town.The artist was well received by the South African art community. He held his first solo exhibition only a year after his arrival. From 1943-45, he taught at the Johannesburg Art School. Nine years later he was appointed as a lecturer at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. Over the next two decades, van Essche was awarded many accolades, including the Gold Medal Award of Honour for Painting by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns.The speed with which the artist was accepted by the South African art establishment (he was even appointed Commissioner for South Africa at the Venice Biennale in 1958), demonstrates how highly he was regarded. One could view this still life as a visual autobiography. The attention paid to the pattern of the curtain and contrasting surface textures of the various objects reveals the influence of Matisse. The mask on the wall and the carved wooden head refer to the artist's travels in the Congo. The palette hanging on the far left makes a broader statement about van Essche's identity – a clear statement that he is first and foremost a painter.BibliographyF. Haenggi online database, accessed 6 August 2018.