Dimensions of the watercolor: 27 x 35 cm. Monogrammed lower right.
René MELS (1909-1977).
Belgian painter, engraver and master glassmaker, René Mels studied at the academies of Leuven and Brussels (1930-1933) then at the National School of Architecture and Visual Arts in La Cambre (1937-1938). He began as a figurative painter in the 1930s and began in 1940 in painting aimed at synthesizing figuration and abstraction. Member of the Jeune Peinture Belge group, he participated in the 1947 exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Works at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, at the Cabinet des Estampes de la Bnf in Paris or at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
Bibliography:
Ph. Jones, René Mels and André Willequet, in: Les Beaux-Arts, no 515, Bruxelles, January 5, 1951.
F. Verhesen, Reflections on the recent work of René Mels, in: Marginales, Bruxelles, July 1963.
Around of the group ART ABSTRAIT 1952-1956, an essay on aesthetic geography, Walloon Center for Contemporary Art of the French Community “La Chataigneraie”, October 18-November 16, 1986, Ramet-Flémalle.
M. Eemans, Living Art in Belgium, Meddens, 1972.
René Mels, Galerie Élysée, Brussels, 1973 (catalog).
Phil Mertens, La Jeune Peinture Belge 1945-1948, Laconti, Bruxelles, 1975.
Ph. Roberts-Jones, W. Toebosch, F. Verhesen, P.-E. Vincent, René Mels ou les Hauts-fonds, Sint-Martens-Latem, 1994.
Ph. Roberts-Jones, Abstract painting in Belgium 1920-1970, Snoeck-Ducaju & zoon and Crédit Communal, 1996