Belgian School
1895 -1955
Le Train à Vapeur
Oil on canvas, signed
45.7 x 56 cms
18 x 22 ins
Fernand Steven was an artist who was fascinated by the mechanical age, its shapes, structures and energy.
He was born in Liège in 1895 and in 1908 was a pupil at L'École Professionale de Mécanique and attended evening courses at L'Académie des Beaux Arts in Liège in the studios of Evariste Carpentier and Adrien de Witte. He held his first exhibition with La Cercle des Beaux-Arts in 1922, although the majority of his work then was landscapes. He had been to France to paint and had travelled through the Pyrenees and Brittany and these comprised a large part of the works at the show together with views in Le Pays and the Meuse valley. Apart from the landscapes, there were also a few figure subjects and portraits and the first indication of his attraction to things mechanical with some industrial landscapes in the Herstal region.
1922 marked the moment when he began to fully realise his true interest and he produced a series of abstract works entitled "Mouvements" which were industrial scenes, in particular machinery parts. In 1932, he became involved with "Art Moderne" in Liège and collaborated with them to produce the review "Anthologie" and it was at this time that his paintings became increasingly imbued with a Futurist style.
As well as the industrial landscapes, he was painting more machine parts and working motors. He was striving to blend the marvel of these human creations, constructed from cold, inanimate materials with their massive power and energy, with a sense of poetic beauty. In a spiritual perspective, he managed to fuse marine and plant life with mechanical and astral elements.
Steven was appointed professor of the Academy in Liège in 1943, a post he held until 1955, teaching design there. In 1937, he was commissioned to produce murals for official buildings in Liege such as the Seelinger Clinic and L'Hôtel de Ville in Chenée and Lycée Leonie de Waha.
Museums where his work can be seen include: Liège, Ostende, Bruxelles, Herstal and Verviers.
Bibliography:
Dictionnaire des Artistes Plasticiens de Belgique des XIXe et XXe
Siecles - Paul Piron
Arto Dictionnaire Biographique Arts Plastiques en Belgique
Dictionnaire des Peintres - E Benezit
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