Self-taught sculptor whose work was largely lost to the bombs of 1943.

Karel Schuermans was born in Antwerp in 1869, the son of a tailor. Coming from a modest background, he first trained in masonry and stonework before turning to sculpture, which he developed largely as a self-taught artist. This training through artisanal practice durably marked his relationship with materials: mastery of the medium — oak wood, marble or bronze — is central to his work and immediately perceptible in the treatment of surfaces.

His first participation in an exhibition dates back to 1905, when he joined the local artistic circles Ken U Zelf and Wij in Antwerp. From the start, he distinguished himself through rigorous and expressive work, producing mainly portraits, busts and allegorical compositions with introspective themes: Sadness, Oneirism, Flora, Grief. He excelled in direct carving of wood and marble.

From the 1920s onwards, Schuermans turned towards sculpture in bronze, a field in which he acquired great renown. He was commissioned for numerous funerary and commemorative monuments in the towns of Mortsel, Antwerp, Hamme and Sinaï. All his metal production bears the signature K. Schuermans and the stamp of the Batardy foundry in Brussels.

On 3 April 1943, an air raid on Mortsel destroyed his studio, his house and all his archives, making an exhaustive reconstruction of his career difficult today. Among his surviving works are busts of the composer Peter Benoit, the painter Aloïs De Laet and the composer Edgar Tinel, a bronze version of which was acquired in 1940 by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp. Karel Schuermans died in 1962.

Literature

• Archives du Cercle de Sculpteurs d’Anvers. Livret du Salon 1931.
• DELSAERDT, Luc. De Antwerpse beeldhouwkunst in de 19de en 20ste eeuw. Antwerp, 1990.
• ENGELEN et MARX, La Sculpture en Belgique à partir de 1830 / Beeldhouwkunst België na 1830, 7 vol., Louvain, Engelen, 2006, Vol. VI.