VERPILLEUX, Émile Antoine

1888 - 1964

Émile Antoine Verpilleux was born at Notting Hill, London on 3 March 1888, son of Émile Antoine Verpilleux, a Belgian professor of languages, and his wife Edith née Beard. Young Émile was educated at the Philological School, London, St Genis in France and at the Antwerp Académie des Beaux Arts. He married firstly at Kensington, London in 1910, Grace Newson (3 December 1889-24 March 1958), who was born at Felixstowe, Suffolk, and in 1910 Émile was an artist in painting, living at 43-45 Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill, London with his 22-year-old wife Grace with the newly born of their four daughters, Joan Edith [Shaw]. Émile served as a Captain in the Royal Flying Corp in the First World War and being injured, he spent time in Bristol Hospital. In 1919 in that year's New Year Honours List, was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). His military service lasted from 1914 until 1922, but despite his war experience, he also managed to paint numerous war subjects, especially that of the Royal Flying Corps. In 1927, Verpilleux was living at Latchetts, Danehill, Surrey and married secondly at Paddington Registry Office, London in February 1936, Caroline Elizabeth Putnam (born 1899) about which time he moved to Bermuda as an artist, portrait and landscape painter and a woodcut printmaker. He exhibited at the Ipswich Fine Art Society in 1923, three coloured wood engravings 'The River, from Waterloo Bridge', 'British Museum' and 'Malines' also showing at the Royal Academy, the Paris Salon, the New English Art Club, the International of Sculptors, Painters and Engravers and elsewhere. During 1949-1950 he collaborated with ceramicist Andre Bohemelec to produce a series of dioramas, depicting scenes of early Bermuda history, which were on exhibit in a special gallery in Fort St Catherine. During the early 1950s, Verpilleux was active in establishing the Bermuda Society of Arts and served as president of the society from 1952 until 1956. Émile Antoine Verpilleux died in Bermuda on 10 September 1964. Many of his wartime paintings are in the collection of the Royal Air Force Museum.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 11 Elm Grove, Cricklewood
1912 1382 St Paul's, from Cheapside - the first coloured woodcut engraving to have hung at the Academy
1914 801 The Wind on the Top of the Hill
from Nursey, Hadlow Down, Sussex
1920 280 Portrait
from Latchetts, Danehill, Sussex
1929 1171 Joan Convalescent - chalk & wash

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Works by This Artist