ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Kurt Peiser was born in Antwerp, Belgian in 1887. He was a realistic painter and engraver. He was known for his paintings of the local fishermen and often depicted tragedies and miseries they incurred. While he was born in Belgium, his heritage was Polynesian. He attended the Antwerp Academy of Art.
Peiser concentrated on scenes of fishermen, their lives on the sea and the rivers they fished on. He painted the modest struggling fishermen and their families mostly in the area of Heist and Antwerp. He had a personal affection for them and his paintings reflect his social preoccupation with their struggles.
His paintings included genre scenes not only of the fishermen, but their wives and children and their working and personal lives both on shore and at sea.
He eventually settled in the town of Uccle. In 1914, several of his paintings were sent to Antwerp for a major exhibition.
Peiser was a member of the prestigious art group, La Gravure Originale Belge, being considered a major engraver as well as a fine oil painter.
In 1929, the gallery, Georges Giroux held a large retrospective of his works.
Kurt Peiser died in Uccle, Belgium in 1962.