Description:

c. 1930
signed and annotated ‘étude’ (lower left)
ink and watercolour on panel
300 x 345 mm

Note:

Maurice Langaskens was a Belgium artist working between the two wars.  He was held prisoner in Germany from 1915 to 1917, an experience which led him to abandon subjects of Symbolism he had been exploring in favour of scenes of daily life.  Langaskens painted this drawing of an old man looking at a map with a magnifying glass on a plywood panel, whose veining he left exposed as a background. He did a number of variations of this composition.