Translated with Google Translate. Original text show .
Photos are part of the description.
Theo Swagemakers was one of the most renowned portrait painters in the Netherlands.
He was the son of a woollen fabric manufacturer. After his first lessons with Jan Petrus van Delft, he went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in 1923. Here he became friends with Opsomer and Permeke. In 1926 he moved to Paris and attended the Académie Colorossi there until 1929. Here he discovered impressionism and got to know Zadkine and Kees van Dongen, among others. He had his first exhibition in Paris, which also resulted in many portrait assignments in the Netherlands. That is why he settled in Amsterdam in 1932 and worked there for the rest of his life. His oeuvre consists of more than 2500 works, including some 1200 portraits. His models included members of the royal family, church leaders, actors, industrialists and bankers.