Hyde Park by Emile Hoeterickx 1880'

The Brussels painter Emile Hoeterickx (1853 - 1923) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels before working as a decorative painter at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and at the Théâtre de Lille. In 1880, he participated in the creation of the group l'Essor, an important milestone in the development of the avant-garde in Belgium. He will also be an active and noted member of the salons of the Royal Belgian Society of Watercolourists. Hoeterickx will also present his watercolors and paintings in Belgian and international Fine Arts fairs. As a mark of his success, several museums bought works from him and he obtained a place as professor of decorative arts at the Institute of Arts and Crafts in Brussels (from 1890), then at the Academy of Ixelles (Brussels). Emile Hoeterickx described in his paintings and watercolors the life of his time in beach scenes or more often urban scenes. If he realizes at his beginnings some scenes of a social nature (admired by Van Gogh), he will move towards more refined and worldly scenes. His urban scenes, describing the bustle of the main streets or the social life of the parks, take place in Brussels, where the artist will spend most of his life and where he will die in 1923, in Paris and especially in London. Hoeterickx will stay several times in the English capital, in the district of Kensington, sometimes for long periods. He describes Hyde Park here. Hoeterickx will develop in his paintings and watercolors a specific way to the cottony atmosphere where, on sets of skies or trees, the characters are born from spots of colors in contrast. A way that evokes theater painting, a profession practiced by the artist, but also the art of James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 - 1903). (Text: Laurent Stevens, art historian)