Oscar Verpoorten - Still life with vase and fruit

Oscar Verpoorten (1895-1948) was a Belgian painter, sculptor and graphic artist.
He was a student at the Antwerp Art Academy (including Frans Lauwers and Charles Mertens) and became a teacher at the Berchem Academy in 1935.

Verpoorten painted exclusively figuratively: city corners, harbour views, seascapes, still lifes, landscapes, figures and portraits.

His style was post-impressionistic. This places him with the more traditionally working Antwerp painters from the first half of the 20th century such as Frank Mortelmans, John Michaux, Isidore Opsomer, René Leclercq, Antoon Marstboom and Georges Van Raemdonck. Typical for a large part of his oeuvre is the use of monotonous earth colours in representations in which he then lets certain parts light up. In other works, light and colour are more emphatically present.

Verpoorten was a member of various artists' associations: Flemish Art Circle (founded in 1927), Art Circle Als ick kan (1928), Modern Art Circle (artists' association founded in April 1927 in Antwerp), Société belge des Peintres de la Mer (founded in 1930) and Art Circle 't Getij (co-founder in 1939 and later chairman).