Victor Gilsouls father, Leopold Gilsoul and mother Thérèse Biers had a pub in the suburbs of Brussels (Schaerbeek). The clientele of the pub consisted mainly of unemployed painters and artists. The later known painter Louis Artan (1837-1890) was a regular customer at the pub and rented an attic room there. Father Leopold had done everything he could to give the life of Viktor another destination than that of artist. But it was Louis Artan and animal painter Alfred Verwee (1838-1895) who inspired the then very young Victor Gilsoul to become an artist and painter. Victor Gilsoul started drawing at age 12 and was received with much enthusiasm by the regulars at the pub. At age 14 he won the first prize at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.
Biography
1867 : October 9, Victor Gilsoul is born in Brussels
1878 : at the age of 12 Victor begins to draw
1880: at the age of 14 Victor Gilsoul receives the first prize at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp
1883 : at the age of 17 Victor Gilsoul gives his first exhibition at the salon in Brussels
1890 : King Leopold II of Belgium buys the painting ' Crepuscule '
1894 : the artist marries the artist Ketty Hoppe
1897 : at an international exhibition in Munich the Prince of Bavaria buys 2 paintings
1898: the Grand Duke of Saxe Weimar buys the painting Canal en automne "
1898: King Leopold II of Belgium ennobles and knights Victor Gilsoul
1899 : the Museum of Krefeld buys the painting Lever du lune
1900: at the World Exhibition in Paris Victor Gilsoul receives a silver medal for his paintings. The first prize is of course for a French artist. Victor Gilsoul is now a wealthy man and that allows him to travel and work throughout Europe. He visits the Netherlands, England, France, Switzerland, Italy and Egypt.
1901 : King Leopold II of Belgium buys a second painting at the Paris salon and Victor Gilsoul gets an order of his Majesty to create 13 paintings to decorate the royal yacht Alberta
1902: the city of Brussels orders four paintings. These will decorate the meeting room of the hall of Aldermen on the 1st floor
1903: Camille Mauclair (1872-1945), French poet and writer, wrote a monograph on Victor Gilsoul. Mauclair has the following to say about the painting Le soir de bruges : " Ce tableau est le meilleur témoignage de l'art belge. " (This painting is the best example of Belgian art.)
1904: acquisition of two paintings by the Queen Mum Mary (mother of King Albert I of Belgium )
1910: The separation from his wife Ketty Hoppe is a fact. In the same year the painter is admitted to a psychiatric hospital and put in a straitjacket. His personal physician can get him released the same day by negotiating and threatening with a lawsuit. After that Victor Gilsoul moves to France and commutes between Paris and Belgium.
1910-1923: French period. Victor Gilsoul has a studio in Paris (Avenue Villiers XVII arrondissement)
1914: at the beginning of WWI Victor flees to the neutral Netherlands
1915 : The city of Paris bought the painting Mannekensvere”
1924: Victor becomes professor at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp
1933 : Gilsoul starts work in his last workshop, in Brussels (Woluwe-Saint-Lambert )
1939: on the eve of World War II, on December 5, 1939 Victor Gilsoul dies.
Art
Four elements were very important in the paintings of Victor Gilsoul: storms, waves, rivers & nature. The presence of water in general is a recurring element in his paintings. Gilsoul developed his unique way of working by painting large paintings in various stages. His major works are not entirely realistic, nor completely impressionist. They were not created on site but were the result of several studies which he made anywhere, on the spot. These studies of nature, at different times and intervals, give a superposition of mood, deepening, images and light. Of these different images and sensations he composed a summary on a very large canvas, which has a much stronger suggestive power than any painting of nature.
