About Charles Eyck
Charles Eyck (1897, Meerssen – 1983, Schimmert) is one of Limburg’s most renowned visual artists. In addition to paintings and drawings, he also created murals, prints, sculptures, tile panels, stained glass windows, and textile designs.
Charles Eyck was a versatile artist from Limburg who became a leading figure in Dutch monumental art. At the age of ten, he lost his hearing due to scarlet fever. Four years later, he began working as a decorative painter at the Société Céramique pottery factory in Maastricht, where his exceptional drawing talent quickly stood out.
In 1917, Eyck was admitted to the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, where he studied monumental art — art created in service of the (Catholic) community. In 1922, he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome, which enabled him to spend four years working in France and Italy. There, he was influenced by fourteenth- and fifteenth-century artists such as Giotto and Fra Angelico.
Breakthrough as a church painter
In addition to paintings on canvas and panel, Eyck also produced numerous drawings, ceramics, prints, and even textile designs. His first major national breakthrough as a church painter came in 1929, with murals in the Saint Vincentius Church in Brunssum. Many ecclesiastical commissions followed in Limburg and beyond, including stained glass windows, paintings, and sculptures. At the same time, he drew inspiration from modern French artists such as Raoul Dufy and Maurice Utrillo.
In the 1930s, Eyck contributed illustrations, drawings, and literary texts to the Catholic weekly De Gemeenschap. He was also involved in the Dutch pavilions at the world exhibitions in Brussels (1935) and Paris (1937). During the Second World War, he refused to join the Nazi-established Kultuurkamer, and was consequently banned from practising his profession.
1952: a year of change
After the war, Eyck was commissioned to create the official painting of Queen Juliana’s inauguration in 1948. In 1951, he took part in the first São Paulo Biennial, presenting, among other works, a stone Pietà sculpture and a painted portrait of Marcel van Grunsven, the mayor of Heerlen. The year 1952 marked a turning point: Eyck discovered the recent work of Pablo Picasso in Antibes, travelled to Andalusia, and resolved to settle in France. That same year, his Limburg Liberation Monument was unveiled on the Koningsplein in Maastricht. In late October 1952, he left for a stay of more than six months on Curaçao.
In 1962, Eyck completed a deeply personal project: painting the interior of a small church in the northern French village of Jeantes-la-Ville. This project is considered one of the highlights of his monumental oeuvre.
Although Eyck did not align himself with postwar modernist movements, he remained committed to his expressive, figurative style. Until his death in 1983, he remained a prominent figure in the Limburg art world. His work continues to inspire new generations of artists and lives on in countless paintings, murals, and monumental works across the Netherlands and beyond.