Edgard Farasyn

Edgard Farasyn
Self-portrait (date unknown)
Born	Edgard Pierre Jozef Farasyn (1858-07-14)14 July 1858 Antwerp, Belgium
Died	2 March 1938(1938-03-02) (aged 79) Antwerp, Belgium
Education	Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp
Occupation(s)	Painter, engraver and etcher

Fisherman's Wife with Child on the Beach
(date unknown)

Edgard Farasyn; Signature

Edgard Pierre Jozef Farasyn (also spelled Farasijn; 14 August 1858, in Antwerp – 22 March 1938, in Antwerp) was a Belgian painter, watercolorist, engraver and etcher who specialized in seascapes, landscapes, genre scenes and interior portraits. In his later life, he became interested in depicting fishermen.

Life and work

He received his artistic training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp, where he studied under Nicaise de Keyser. In 1885, he became a teacher at the Academy. Six years later, he was a founding member of the secessionist group De XIII and was also active in Weest U Zelve (roughly, Be Yourself), a group devoted to promoting Flemish art.

He initially focused on painting children, but switched to plein air painting after becoming a teacher. He mostly worked in and around Antwerp, but also went to Mol and the Kempen region and occasionally ventured into Zeeland. His early works are mostly done in dark, sombre colors, but his canvas lightened considerably after he visited Koksijde and decided to portray the lives of the fishermen and their families. He also practiced mural painting. Of special note is the painting Optocht van de rederijkerskamer "De Violieren" in 1539 (Procession of the Chamber of Rhetoric "The Violieren" in 1539), in the staircase hallway of the Antwerp Town Hall, which he executed in 1899 at the invitation of Frans Van Kuyck; part of a larger project of historical murals which also included works by Piet Verhaert, Edouard de Jans, Karel Boom and Henri Houben.

He gave many exhibitions, winning awards at the Sydney International Exhibition (1879) and the Brussels International (1897). He retired from teaching in 1924.

Gallery

• 
  Painting of a fisherwoman in dune landscape in the NAVIGO National Fisheries Museum Oostduinkerke
• 
  Horse fishermen in the sea in NAVIGO
• 
  Horse fishermen on the beach in NAVIGO
• 
  Pannepot on the beach in NAVIGO
• 
  Fishermen on the harbor head in NAVIGO
• 
  Eel barge with cross net in NAVIGO
• 
  Interior with fisherwomen in NAVIGO
• 
  Alley with fisherman's house in NAVIGO
• 
  Procession 'Pardon' and Brittany in NAVIGO
• 
  Woman with goat in the dunes in NAVIGO

Further reading

• W. G. Flippo, Lexicon of the Belgian Romantic painters; International Art Press, Antwerp, 1981
• Léon Tombu, Peintres et Sculpteurs Belge à l'Aube du XXe Siècle. Liège, Auguste Bénard, 1907
• C. Lemonnier, L'école belge de peinture : 1830-1905, Brussels, Labor, 1991 (first edition, Van Oest, 1906).
• Paul Colin, La peinture belge depuis 1830, Brussels, Editions des Cahiers de Belgique, 1930

External links

Media related to Edgar Farasyn at Wikimedia Commons

• ArtNet: Seven pages of paintings by Farasyn
• Commentary on Farasyn in the Quarterly Illustrator, Vol.2 @ Google Books