Theo Swagemakers - Large oil painting on panel "St. Sebastian statue" signed - beautifully framed - Sold

• An oil on panel painted by Theo Swagemakers in 1979 in soft pastel colors depicting "image of a female St. Sebastian" Signed and dated lower left. Both the painting and the matching frame are in good condition.

Theo Swagemakers (1898-1994) was the son of a woolen fabric manufacturer. He did not follow in his father's footsteps because he wanted to become a painter. After his first lessons with Jan Petrus van Delft, he went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in 1923. Here he made friends with Isidore Opsomer and Constant Permeke. In 1926 he moved to Paris and attended the Académie Colorossi there until 1929. Swagemakers discovered impressionism and became acquainted with Zadkine and Kees van Dongen, among others. His first exhibition in Paris earned him many portrait commissions in the Netherlands. That is why he settled in Amsterdam in 1932 and worked there for the rest of his life.

Swagemakers' oeuvre consists of more than 2,500 works, including approximately 1,200 portraits. His models included members of the royal family, church princes, actors, industrialists and bankers. He also painted still lifes, landscapes and seascapes. In the Palace and Town Hall in Tilburg there is a portrait of Queen Beatrix painted by Swagemakers. Other works were purchased by, among others, the Stedelijk Museum, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller and the Van Abbemuseum.