Curriculum vitae of Maritime painter Bob De Bruycker.

Born in Antwerp, November 1931. He inherited the interest for sea and ships from his father, a ship-owner in the coastal trade and a keen ship model builder. While studying art crafts in Antwerp as silversmith, engraving and metal chasing, he spent all his summer holidays sailing on fathers coasters. Starting from 1946 to 1949 he sailed the English - Scottish, German, Swedish and Finnish coasts. In 1955 he started regatta sailing and is now skipper of the sailing yacht “Santanna” on which he cruised extensively in the Channel and Mediterranean.

Between 1957 and 1967 he was commissioned by the National Maritime Museum in Antwerp to restore several ship models. As an autodidact painter he obtained the second price for marine painting in the 1968 competition organized by the Belgian State River pilots.

In the late seventies, as rear commodore of the Ocean Cruising Club, continental section, he organized several non- stop rallies to Lisbon.

In 1989 he joined a group of marine painters and is co-founder of the association of Belgian Marine Painters. He is mentioned in the edition 2000 of the “DICTIONNARY OF SEA PAINTERS OF EUROPE AND AMERICA” by the late E.H. Archibald, conservator of oil paintings, Greenwich Maritime Museum.


In addition to the yearly exhibitions by the association of Belgian Marine Painters, he has had personal exhibitions in Holland, on board of the ram cruiser “Schorpioen”, in France at the Musée Portuaire, Dunkirk at the Fondation Provoust near Lille and was invited by the Academia de Marinha, Lisbon, to represent the Belgian delegation at their National Exhibition in 1994. In 2001 , together with some other Belgian marine Painters, they participated as guests of honor to the 2001“Salon de la Marine” in the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. In 2006 he was commissioned by the Ministry of Defense to produce a silver “bas relièf” commemorating the 175^th anniversary of the Belgian Navy.

In July 16 2000, he was honoured “ Official Painter of the Belgian Navy “ by Admiral M.Verhulst. stafchef of the Belgian Navy. His work covers many old sailing ships, old steamers, and memories of his sailing days from just after the war. He likes to depict naval encounters from both world wars and was commissioned with many paintings for his fellow yachtsmen. His techniques are oil, acrylics and watercolours.