Auguste Distave

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Auguste Distave (born November 30, 1887 in Marchin , † December 22, 1947 in Ostend ) was a Belgian art teacher and graphic artist in the first half of the twentieth century. He worked in the city of Ostend between the world wars.

Life

Auguste Distave signature.jpg

Oscar-Félix-Auguste Distave was born in Marchin, south of Huy, in Wallonia, Belgium. He studied in Leuven and from 1908 worked as a drawing teacher at the Koninklijke Atheneum in Oostende, a very fashionable port city on the Flemish coast at the time. His pupils included the later painters Gustaaf Sorel and AJ Van Heste. At the outbreak of the First World War , Distave, like many of his compatriots, fled from the German occupation troops to nearby England. In 1915 in Nottingham he married Elise Tournoy, who had also fled from Ostend. In 1917 he moved to Choisy-le-Roi near Paris, in order to return to Ostend after the end of the war and to resume his work as a teacher and artist in a city that had suffered badly and where, with the destroyed villas and bombed-out facilities, the whole splendor of the Belle- époque had gone under, which led to a major economic and social change. Auguste Distave was to stay there until the end of his life. His descendants still live in Ostend today.

Artistic activity

Auguste Distave had received a classical education that shaped his work. He also painted oil paintings, but his special talent was shown in his etchings. Not only technically he mastered etching needles and acids perfectly. In Paris, Chartres and Rouen, in the Flemish cities of Ieper, De Panne, Nieuwpoort and Brugge, but especially in the Ostend of the Interbellum , he found the inspiration for his atmospheric, often melancholy pictures. He did not try to convey the reflection of the past greatness, but atmospheric nuances that he captured in the old town, the alleys of the fishing district and at the port.

Works

The Museum voor Schone Kunsten van Oostende kept the following etchings in 1989:

  1. Het derde commercial document 1931 (174x140)
  2. Impasse Hendrik Serruyslaan (392x297)
  3. De vismijn te Ostend (392x297)
  4. Berthe O.50 (342x265)
  5. Het derde commercial document (440x377)
  6. Afleidingskanaal en de De Smet De Naeyerbrug (347x442)
  7. De August Strackéstraat (390x295)
  8. De SS. Petrus & Pauluskerk (390x298)
  9. De Aartshertoginnestraat (343x194)
  10. Vuurtoren (343x194)
  11. Zelfportrait (180x140)

Today you can find etchings Distaves in the Kunstmuseum-aan-Zee in Ostend. Most of the works remain in private hands.

Exhibitions

  • 1982, Ostend, Heemkundig Museum De Plate
  • 1989, Ostend, homage in the gallery De Peperbusse
  • 2003, Oostende, Stedelijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (thematic group exhibition)

gallery

  • Brugge, Pottenmakersstraat (305x240)

  • Old fish market in Ostend (390x290)

  • Afleidings Canal and De Smet de Nayer Bridge

  • Boat in Nieuwpoort (390x290)

  • Ebbe in De Panne (150x210)

  • Lost in thought (590x782)

  • Night in the harbor (177x136)

  • Lighthouse (193x370)

  • Fishing dock in Ostend (155x235)

  • Boats on Visserskaai (137x172)

  • A conversation with fishermen (172x137)

swell

  • Art ring "De Peperbusse": Homage August Distave - Etsen. Ostend 1989.
  • N.Hostyn: Beeldend Ostend. Brugge 1993.
personal data
SURNAME Distave, Auguste
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian art teacher and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Marchin
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1947
Place of death Ostend