GEORGES BRASSEUR (1880-1950) Huge Collection of ORIGINAL DRAWINGS

Description

GEORGES BRASSEUR  (1880-1950) Huge Collection of ORIGINAL DRAWINGS
Huge collection includes the artist's original sketchbook, signed, initialed and unsigned drawings, character and costume studies. This includes two studies for stained glass, one of which is from a Brussels cathedral.  Some pages double-sided.  Condition varies, please see 12 pictures.
PROVENANCE:  Always held privately in the Brasseur's family's collection, inheritance to the artist's grandson, then offered for auction by Florida Estate seller.
BIOGRAPHY: Georges Brasseur (1880 – 1950, Belgium) was a highly accomplished painter, craftsperson, and designer who was equally at home painting young society girls as he was designing stained glass for Belgian churches. Motivated to learn his craft, Brasseur took evening courses in painting and decorating while working for 11 years as a craftsman at a decorator’s workshop where he designed stained glass and ornaments for churches. In 1905 left the workshop to work independently. Brasseur had enjoyed previous patronage from the Duke of Arenberg who acquired Brasseur's paintings and employed him to design tapestries and other decorative items and in 1910 awarded him the opportunity to decorate the main hall of the Palace of the Duke of Arenberg with battle scenes. At this time, he also completed commissions for churches as he continued to attend classes. When WWI began in 1914, German invaded Belgium, a neutral country, by January 1918 Brasseur had been captured by the Germans and accused of espionage. His sentence was 15 years’ hard labor and he was housed in the Prison de St. Gilles, Saint-Gilles, Belgium. He attained his liberty in 1918 at the end if the war and was heralded a hero. He spent the next 8 years successfully showing his work and painting portraits and landscapes throughout Belgium. In 1926 Brasseur was hired as the Director of the School of Painting and Sculpture at the Institute of Fine Arts of Medellín, Colombia. Once arriving, her found that the position, location and resources did not suit him and in 1927 he went to Bogota, from there, North America to Venezuela and finally to Caracas as a professor of drawing. By 1934 he was again in Belgium where he exhibited in Brussels with Galerie des Artistes Français, led by Isy Brachot and Paul André. In 1946 he returned to Bogota, Colombia and had a massive exhibition at the National Library sponsored by the Ministry of National Education, through the Department of Cultural Extension and Fine Arts. Two years later he returned to Medellín and hung a series of landscapes, still-life paintings and portraits in the Museum of Zea. In 1950, he returned to Brussels in 1950 where he passed unexpectedly. Most of this biography has been paraphrased from: Van Broeck, Anne Marie. “Georges Brasseur: a Belgian Painter in Colombia.” Credential Historia, no. 95, Nov. 1997