Jules De Bruycker

Jules De Bruycker (29 March 1870 – 5 September 1945) was a Belgian graphic artist, etcher, painter and draughtsman.

[1] He is considered one of the foremost Belgian graphic artists after James Ensor and achieved a high level of technical virtuosity.

As De Bruycker displayed artistic talent from an early age, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent when he was 10.

[3] In his early years as an artist (from 1902) De Bruycker took up lodgings at an abandoned Carmelite abbey in the district across from the Gravensteen called the Patershol.

[5] Even as a member of this bohemian artist community in Ghent, De Bruycker continued to work in the family business during this period.

After returning to Belgium following the end of the war in 1919 De Bruycker soon started to receive official recognition for his artistic achievements.

During the years 1922-1924 he made few prints but worked on 16 designs for woodcut illustrations for a new edition of Charles De Coster's Ulenspiegel.

[3] The St Nicholas Church of Ghent was one of his favourite subjects which he depicted in a series of large prints, all varying in slight detail.

When the Germans occupied Belgium again in 1940, he produced a series of prints under the title 'Gens de chez nous – 1942' (People from here - 1942).

[10] During the war German print lovers had visited De Bruycker and even asked him to produce a drawing for propaganda purposes which he refused categorically.

[3] Jules De Bruycker practiced in various mediums including oil on canvas, watercolor, drawing and etching.

He achieved a high degree of technical virtuosity in his prints, which earned him the distinction of being called in his time 'the greatest Belgian etcher after Ensor'.

De Bruycker, on the other hand, loved to include crowds of people and dramatic light effects in his graphic work.

[6] De Bruycker's early etchings, dating from 1906 until the outbreak of the First World War, depict mainly four primary themes: the artist's haunts in and around the Patershol, the open-air flea markets with their rough, lowlife population, the cheap sections of the theater and some historic sites of old Ghent.

These works resemble the etchings of the Anglo-Welsh artist Frank Brangwyn, who assisted De Bruycker during the years of his exile in London.