THIRIAR James – drawing – pencil and watercolor on paper, early 20th century

THIRIAR, James (Brussels 1889 – 1965).

Drawing – Pencil/watercolor

41 x 31 cm

Unframed

James Thiriar was a Belgian artist born in Brussels in 1889 and who died in 1965. He was a painter, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator. Coming from a family with a military tradition, he turned towards Symbolism at the beginning of the century. During the First World War, he established himself as one of the most prolific war artists. He was commissioned to produce sketches and observational drawings, first for the artillery department and later for the topography department, who asked him to create large portraits, panoramic drawings, or large portraits of the front. These works are today preserved in the Royal Army Museum. After the war, he specialized in the depiction of uniforms and soldiers. He also painted and drew genre scenes and figures. He joined the Monastère de Bruxelles in 1919 as a costume designer and also created posters. He gradually became known and in 1930 became the artistic director of the Ommegang of Brussels. In 1932, he took part in a Belgian expedition to the Ruwenzori massif and brought back an important documentary collection on the fauna and flora of the Congo and Sudan. In 1938, he created with Théo Fleischman Le Jeu de Liège as part of the 1939 International Water Exhibition in Liège. He published the album Gloire et misère au front des Flandres, 1914–1918 (1920). Watercolors commissioned by the Museum of Tervuren evoke the past of the Congolese Wehrmacht. They were exhibited at the Museum in 1953 and later reproduced as postcards. His works are preserved, among others, at the Cabinet des Estampes in Brussels.

Mentioned in BAS I and Deux siècles de signatures d’artistes belges (Piron).