Eau Forte Marine By Kurt Peiser (1887-1962).

Etching signed at lower right corner. Frame size: 77.5 x 57.5; subject: 66 x 50 cm. Kurt Peiser (Antwerp 1887- Uccle 1962) was a Belgian painter, draughtsman and aquafortist. From his first exhibition in 1907, he made a name for himself as a talented painter of intuitively realistic seascapes. Keen to learn more about his subjects, he sailed for ten years on cargo ships and on his own fishing vessel, while continuing to paint. Faced head-on with the power of the sea, his art reached the heights of realism and expressionism. Born near the Scheldt, he frequented the docks from an early age and made friends with the children of the port's workers. He was suddenly plunged into the social reality of the port: the poverty of the sailors, dockers and boatmen toiling away, the misery of the prostitutes in the vicinity... A wave against a twist of fate, the sea reinforced his conviction that he would no longer judge men or the waves. He had an intuition for the people he met, and loved them from the start, brushing up against their every emotional nook and cranny in his paintings, and welcoming their outbursts. In 1914, a legal episode - his works were said to offend public decency - led him to Paris, where he awaited the outcome of the trial. The outbreak of war forced him to settle in Brussels, where he lived for the rest of his life, though he remained deeply inspired by the port metropolis. Between the wars, he continued his humanist work in the working-class districts of Brussels. A German Jew by birth, he was active in the Resistance during the Second World War, refusing to wear the star and narrowly escaping deportation. In 1945, like other artists (Picasso and Léger in France, Magritte, Somville and Dotremont in Belgium), he joined the Communist Party. His works remain profoundly humanist, but take a less sombre turn. They also retain an overwhelming force, as fine as the subtleties of the soul. In Kurt Peiser, realism, impressionism and expressionism are revealed in all their original truths and in every sense of the word. An artist to be rediscovered again and again, through his paintings and drawings.

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