Alfons Proost artwork • painting • previously for sale At the fair

The Flemish impressionist Alfons Proost, son of itinerant waffle bakers, prefers to paint fairgrounds, the circus, acrobats and dancers. From 1906 his work is characterized by an increasingly lighter palette, especially after his meeting in London (around 1916) with the luminist Emile Claus. Until 1920, Proost painted London's parks in a bright and lively colour. After his return to Antwerp, he became a teacher at the academy there (1920-1945). He then alternates his light-footed fairground and circus scenes with sunny landscapes and depictions of the fashionable beach life in Ostend.