Canal Sene, Rotterdam

Biography of Paul Hermanus ( 1859-1911, Belgian )

Now regarded as one of the pre-eminent Belgian painters of the Nineteenth Century Paul Hermanus was a Realist painter whose work possesses a Luminist quality.  He was born in Brussels in 1859, the son of the painter Alexandre Hermanus, and as a young boy took his initial studies with his father.  In 1870, at the age of only eleven, he enrolled at the Academy of Brussels to study oil painting.  He remained here for ten years perfecting his skills before completing his education at the prestigious ‘La Patte de Dindon’, a free teaching academy where the students were hand selected by a committee.  Around 1885 his career started in earnest and he was soon garnering the attention of the critics who fell in love with his dramatic coastal scenes and town views.  In 1899 he was commissioned to paint a series of frescoes for the Maison Communale d’Uccle which can still be seen today.  Although much of his work was in oils he was also a talented watercolorist and exhibited frequently at the exclusive ‘Cercle des Hydrophiles’.

Paul Hermanus died at the tragically young age of only fifty-one but left behind a body of work of great variety and consistency.  His paintings are housed in numerous private collections and publically in Belgium at the museums of Antwerp, Brussels, Ostend and Ixelles.

This example of his work dates to around 1900, considered his most important period.

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