Seated Woman - Oscar De Clerck

Woman sitting, ink on wood mounted under painted wooden frame, 1927, Oscar de Clerck (1892-1968), dated and signed below.
Work presented at the 1933 Spring Salon. Dimensions cadre: H. 95,5 x W. 63,5 x D. 3,5 cm; dirty: H. 85,5 x 53 cm

Oscar de Cerck (1892-1968), sculptor, medallist.
Took courses at the Academy of Ghent, a.o. with the sculptor Félix Metdepenningen (1909-13). During his studies he met Permeke and Servaes. Co-founder of the Artistic Circle of Ostend (1908). Participates in the World Exhibition in Ghent (1913), where he presents a monumental fountain: Vogelzang. At the Antwerp Triennial (1926) he shows a stone Pietà.
At the outbreak of the First World War, his family moved to England, where he studied sculpture for a while with Scott. He then left for the United States, where he worked mainly on the decoration of exhibition pavilions in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Collaborates with various architects.
Like Oscar Jespers, Henri Puvrez and Emiel Poetou, Declerck is an innovator in the field of sculpture. Asimilates the spirit of cubism and the Art-Deco style.
Professor of modelling at the Leuven Academy (1934); director (1941-59).
Executes monumental and decorative busts and statues in the Cubist style. Later his sculpture became more figurative.
For the Manufacture Impériale et Royale de Nimy, he creates sculptures to be executed in earthenware, such as Woman with panther (cracked white earthenware). For Editions Nerva, who will be responsible for their execution, he composes the projects of "La Céramique Montoise, anciens Etablissements A. Dubois".
Work in the Louvain Municipal Museum: La Flagellation, in wood (1942), and in the garden of this museum: Adoration of stone, in stone (1919). Creates the Homo sum group, which is in the Municipal Museum of Ostend, and the Chemon of the Cross for the Royal Chapel of the Universal Exhibition (1935).