Nestor Cambier

Nestor Cambier (1879–1957) was a Belgian artist and draftsman whose portraits were compared favourably with those of John Singer Sargent but who now is largely forgotten.

He also painted landscapes, city and interior views, still-lives, murals and stained glass, and also produced numerous pencil and chalk drawings.

[1] In 1903, Cambier exhibited at the Triennial Salon of Beaux Arts at Brussels with pictures of a Brabançon innkeeper, a colourful Bazaar, a large tableau of the Cid and the Leper, and a study in pastels of Salome.

He continued to paint portraits and in 1907 exhibited at the Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he won the John Wanamaker prize.

[1] He then spent 19 years intermittently in the United Kingdom (1914–1933), and in 1915 and 1916 he donated some of his works for auction on behalf of the British Red Cross, reaching prices comparable with the best English painters.

In 1923 he became a member of the North British Academy of Arts, and became a resident guest of Sir Henry and Lady Barber at Culham Court, near Henley, Oxfordshire.