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92 x 104 cm<\/span><\/p>\n Beguinage <\/em><\/span><\/strong>–<\/em><\/span> Aarschot<\/span><\/p>\n oil on canvas<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDepicting the Demer with its picturesque banks is his favourite work. Water and sky form the main elements of his paintings and dominate everything else.\u201d -De Klok, 11\/11\/1935<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Eligius Geysels –<\/b>chief train officer Born in Aarschot, on 26 September 1895.<\/p>\n From an early age E. Geysels had a great desire and aptitude for drawing. In his youth he attended the municipal drawing school, with uncommon diligence and zeal. He went through all the classes and was always at the top, so that he won first prize in every class. He practised all branches of drawing: figure drawing, perspective, shading, architectural orders, architecture, mechanics, pen drawings, pencil sketches, drawing from nature, and also watercolours. At the trade school in Leuven he followed evening classes in 1912-1913.<\/p>\n Drawing and painting are natural gifts, and serious study develops those gifts. From childhood Eligius occupied himself with drawing and painting; he studied, he searched and he worked his way up on his own. During his years of study he came into contact with Mr Edm. Paridant, chairman of the drawing school, and often received wise advice from this skilled and authoritative connoisseur of art.<\/p>\n During the war he was on the front line, handled rifle and machine gun, and let paintbox and brush rest for four years. After the armistice he resumed his favourite work with courage and zeal and devoted himself entirely to study and painting. He was a faithful visitor to the museums in Antwerp and Brussels, and admired and studied the masterpieces of our well-known painters. He followed the exhibitions of our famous painters in Antwerp with particular attention, and that fanned the sacred fire of art in him even more. He painted a great deal, without pause; all his work was appreciated, praised and found admirers.<\/p>\n E. Geysels was a particular lover of nature. He knows how to discover all the beautiful nooks and corners in and around the town and to put them on canvas. Depicting the Demer with its picturesque banks is his favourite work. Water and sky form the main elements of his paintings and dominate everything else. He has always had an eye for our beautiful parish church and has put it on canvas from every possible angle and corner, so that he owns a fine collection of all kinds of depictions of the church. Old-fashioned clay huts of the surroundings, hills, trees on the heath, and pools of water were the subject of special studies. A few spots on the Scheldt at Vlassenbroek with its charming little church on the bank had also drawn his particular attention and were rendered on canvas.<\/p>\n We recently visited his studio, saw him at work and were amazed at his skilful and swift activity. In recent months he has produced an incredible amount of work. One should bear in mind that he has little time and can devote only his hours of rest to painting. He must therefore work extraordinarily easily and quickly, and have special inspiration. His house is like a small museum, hung full of canvases of all kinds: panoramas of the surroundings, evening landscapes, trees, heath, huts, sketches from the surroundings of picturesque Meethoven, banks of the Demer at Aarschot and Testelt, distant views, the church in all its nuances, also a few still lifes and flowers.<\/p>\n During our last visit we admired a couple of sketches of picturesque Gavarnie and Lourdes, with the well-known mountain landscapes of his journey to Lourdes. A successful portrait of his mother-in-law in her younger years, the beautiful Mrs Lowies Petri, also caught our attention, as did a fine portrait of his daughter.<\/p>\n Together with other painters of the town he held exhibitions that met with great acclaim, and we wonder why our Aarschot painters no longer exhibit, for instance at the fair. That would bring our town’s artists into touch with the public and make their works known and appreciated. One need only remember the stir the 1937 exhibition caused, and how everyone, residents and strangers alike, stood amazed before the many works of art by our Aarschot painters.<\/p>\n Let us here once more draw attention to the 10 splendid paintings by Eligius Geysels, which aroused so much attention and admiration among visitors to the fair exhibition of 1937.<\/p>\n Source : \u201cDe Klok\u201d, 11 November 1939 no. 45 by J. 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\nHusband of Anna Van den Dorpe<\/p>\n\n