* Essche, (Maurice Charles Louis van, 1906-1977). Still Life, oil on hardboard

Essche (Maurice Charles Louis van, 1906-1977). Still Life with fruit, knife and vase on a table, oil on hardboard, signed upper left, 56 x 68 cm (22 x 26 3/4 ins), framed QTY: (1) NOTE: Maurice Charles Louis van Essche was born 1906, in Antwerp, Belgium. He studied art at the Brussels Academy in 1924 under James Ensor , but halted his studies in 1925 for lack of funding. In 1933 he studied briefly under Henri Matisse in France, having met him by chance in an artist's supply shop in Cagnes, France. Thereafter he continued to paint and study full-time thanks to the sponsorship of his elder brother, Joseph Charles, and a group of friends. His break came in July 1939 when he won a scholarship in a competition organised by the Belgian Government, who commissioned him to undertake a painting expedition to the Belgian Congo, where his travels and experiences influenced him profoundly. In 1940 he and his wife Lucette moved to the Cape, South Africa, rather than return to war-torn Europe, where the artist founded the Continental School of Art in Cape Town in 1948, and became Professor of Fine Art at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 1951. As an active member of The New Group, the artist made a strong contribution to contemporary art in South Africa.