Dating from a similar period to an example of de Beucker’s work illustrated in ‘Dictionaire van Bloemenschilders’ by Patrick Berko, this ravishingly beautiful floral composition dates to 1914. De Beucker is remembered as possibly Belgium’s finest painter of roses of his day and one whose paintings are consistently of the highest standard.
Pascal de Beucker was born in Antwerp in 1861 where he studied at the Academy under Farasyn and Lauwers. Upon graduation he commenced exhibiting at a number of Belgium’s prominent Salons winning numerous medals and prizes for his figurative painting, often of a religious nature. In 1904 he left Belgium for the United States where he settled in Springfield, Illinois. He had met an American miniature painter, a Mrs. W. Robertson, whilst still a teenager who had encouraged him to paint and had taken a keen interest in his career. Whilst in the United States he became highly sought after for his portraits which he executed with an attention to detail of the highest quality. In 1910 he returned to Belgium, married and settled in the town of Mortsel and commenced painting the floral compositions for which he is now best known. In 1914, at the outbreak of WWI, he relocated to Driebergen in Holland, returning to Belgium in 1919. As with many of his contemporaries he found things on his return to be very different and the changes in the fashions of art meant less demand for works of a highly polished nature. Regardless, Pascal de Beucker continued to paint until his death in 1945 amassing a total of over one thousand oils. A major retrospective of his life and work was held at the Albert van Dyck Museum in the town of Schilde in 2000.
Lit; E. Benezit, P. Piron, P. Berko