Watercolor By Aubin Pasque (1903–1981)

A watercolor depicting a group of women in armor, who might be reminiscent of Joan of Arc. Their eyes are closed and their faces look focused. Their helmets and armor vary. They appear to be standing in front of a tapestry rendered in the same hues—a gradient of browns, greens, and peach.
Signed in the lower right corner.

Silver-plated frame with restored mat.

Dimensions: 39 x 47 cm

Aubin Pasque was a Belgian artist born in 1903 in Liège and who died in 1981 in Brussels. He was a painter, monotype artist, and illustrator. Trained at the Academy of Liège, he moved to Brussels in 1921 and took evening classes at the Academy there. He leaned toward the fantastical and was a leading figure of magical realism. A sophisticated colorist, he began with landscapes of the Ardennes, Spain, and Dalmatia, as well as still lifes, in a post-Cubist synthetic style. He evolved toward the fantastical, creating figures and compositions drawn from the imagination, among other subjects. He was drawn to esotericism from a very young age, and in addition to his focus on design, he infused his art with intellectual content that reflects his interest in Hermeticism, Symbolism, the occult, and alchemy. Later, straddling figuration and abstraction, his art—rooted in the imagination—frequently evokes mineral or plant structures, each serving as an evocation from which the mystery of ancient legends and primeval forests emerges.

In 1958, he founded the group and the journal *Fantasmagie* (1959–1979), to which he devoted himself for twenty years, as well as the International Center for Fantastic and Magical Current Events (CIAFMA). Mentioned in BAS I and Two Centuries of Belgian Artists’ Signatures. (piron)

Ref: Wikipedia