Vincent de Jaegher was born in Belgium.  Since his early childhood days, he has loved drawing and painting.  In 1954, when he was only 12 years old, his artist aunt gave him private lessons in oil painting.

 

His father, a great lover of art, also drew particularly well, noted for his bookplates (ex-libris).  A highly cultivated aesthete, he was well known in artistic circles.  For him, what counted most was the intrinsic beauty of things.

 

The family holidays organized by Vincent de Jaegher’s parents consisted half of trips to the sea or to the mountains and for the other half, visiting châteaux, museums and art galleries in France and in England.

 

When he was 16, he was intensely and decisively moved by the paintings of Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh.  He decided: “This is what I wish to do later, paint like them.”

 

After studying the classics, he attended Fine Arts courses in Belgium for several years.

 

He spent a year in London to learn English.  He also studied Japanese at the London School of Oriental Studies.

 

He started off his professional career with an inclination towards Asia.

 

Though not directly linked to his studies, he continued his painting regularly, a passion that would never dwindle.

 

Enthralled by Asia, he lived in Tokyo and in Kobe for a year.  Afterwards, he returned over 50 times to Asia for professional reasons and visited a multitude of countries.  To name only a few, he stayed in Hong Kong, Seoul, Peking, Shanghai and Tokyo.  He also visited the United States, Los Angeles in particular.

 

One of his close friends, Belgian collector Émile Veranneman, introduced him to the world-famous Chinese painter, Zao Wou-Ki, who resided in Paris.  He met him in his work studio in 1994:  an exciting face-to-face encounter filled with immense joy and unforgettable hours during which they shared their love of painting and of Asia.  It was very important for Vincent to meet this painter whom he appreciated enormously, and who had dedicated his life to painting.

 

For Vincent, Turner, Monet and Zao Wou-Ki are the painters whose canvasses display the true essence and the beauty that lies in the art of painting.

 

After an active professional career, he dedicated himself exclusively to his lifelong passion, painting.

 

In 2007, he shared exhibits with two of his renowned artist friends at a local showing at the Séroule estate in Verviers, Belgium.

 

After this event, he was encouraged to enrol in the international watercolour competition in Namur, Belgium.  Over 400 candidates applied.  The selection was conducted with the painters’ signatures covered; less than a third of the candidates were chosen.  He was selected in the top category.  The ensuing exhibit was held in 2009.

 

His first personal exhibit opened in 2013 at the gallery of the Société Royale d'Harmonie in Verviers, where his acrylics were highly acclaimed.

 

Vincent is still a little-known artist, yet whose abundant productivity bears witness to his true passion.  He has always worked 10 to 12 hours a day.  Such is his lifestyle.  Working diligently and independently without further training, he applies the advice and wisdom gleaned from masters Zao Wou-Ki and Cao Bei-An.

 

His canvasses are permeated with the ambience of the places he knew during his extensive travel throughout Asia.

 

Figurative landscapes and abstractions make up the majority of his subjects.  They invite us to journey inside ourselves.

 

He progressively lets go of the representational to practice an art closer to the soul.

 

Revealing visions and landscapes that come from inside his heart, seeking to visually render the indescribable, he brings forth unknown imaginary worlds that blaze with energy.

 

He paints with the courage to follow his intuitions, listening for the breath of life from inside which leads to the universal.  His best friend is his Chinese paintbrush.  Simple and quick, it helps the artist connect with the cosmos.

 

The most striking aspect is the fiery spirit and the wild energy that emanates from his paintings, contained aggressiveness which is balanced by great sensitivity and delicacy.

 

Audacious and creative, he loves to break the rules.  He is a free spirit, rebelling against set standards and eager to discover.  This fiery personality is represented by daring flashes of light and bursts of energy, freedom of action that visually offers to each their own ideas of liberty, of dreaming and of a world without limitations.

 

Life in Japan also gave him a taste for the pure and simple beauty that results from the Zen spirit:  seeking the essential by eliminating the accessory.  Through a conscious effort of stripping down to bare essentials, he tries to enhance the importance of the heart and the soul of things, expressing oneself better by showing less, pushing purification to the extreme to show the only landscape that counts:  that of beauty that each of us carries within, the breath of life and of hope for a better world.

 

His paintings are also an enchantment of very rich, shimmering and flamboyant colours.  He loves to make us dream, to diffuse a message of beauty, of joy and of optimism.   This is a warm, inventive artist whose strong personality projects energy and optimism.

 

For Vincent, success is always tied to untiring perseverance.  Dare and remain oneself.

 

“Make it different to be unique.”

 

A talent to discover.