Roger Coppe

Watercolour painting entitled by the artist "Heavy Legs", representing a nude, reclined woman.

Roger Coppe was a Belgian expressionist painter, sculptor, draughtsman and master glassmaker. He was born February 10, 1928 in Flawinne, near Namur. Son of an official, his family moved to Comines in 1938, where he studied classical human sciences. Subsequently, he studied decorative arts in Tournai. He became professor of history of art and aesthetics at Saint-Henri (Comines) College in 1952. At the same time, he developed his career as a draughtsman, painter and sculptor. Having become a master glassmaker, he had a stained glass workshop for nearly thirty years and restored windows of many churches in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Congo. From 1980, his production focuses on drawing and watercolour, developing his style between a lyrical abstraction and a representation of essential lines strongly influenced by Bacon, Balthus, Dix, Daumier, etc., where the nude became essential in his work and followed aesthetic canons that are far removed from contemporary aseptic aesthetics. In 1982, he founded a fine arts academy in Comines-Warneton. From 1985 onwards, he showed his paintings at solo exhibitions in various towns in Belgium and exhibited in Brussels in 1990, Tournai in 1991 and Ghent in 1992. In that year, he began exhibiting with the group “Figuration Critique” in Paris.

Coppe painted female figures, frequently nudes, both in motion and in relaxed poses, with all muscles flexed or by contrast with softened forms. He had no hesitation about enlarging or deforming his models to achieve greater expressive force, further intensified by colours which were harsh and yet at the same time gloomy – purplish reds contracting with dirty yellows and glaucous greens.

Roger Coppe died in Mouscron (Belgium) on October 5, 2012 at the age of 84 years.

Artist: Roger Coppe (1928-2012).
Signed on the bottom left.
Medium: Watercolour on paper.
Condition: Excellent
Dimension: 28 x 36 cm. / 11 x 14 ¼ in. (visible)
Frame: 52 x 60 cm. / 20 ½ x 23 ½ in. Wood, Montparnasse style, brown matting and glass. Excellent condition.
Provenance: France.