Charles Boom

Karel Boom, also known as Charles Boom, birth name Carolus Richardus Maria Boom (3 April 1858, Hoogstraten was a Belgian painter, watercolorist, printmaker and art educator. He is known for his genre paintings of contemporary figures, portraits as well as his monumental paintings of historical or biblical scenes, often painted as murals in public buildings.

Life and work He was born in Hoogstraten, the son of Richardus Gerardus Boom, a house painter, and Joanna Catharina Weyler. His teachers included Edward Dujardin, Lucas Victor Schaefels and Charles Verlat. After completing his studies, he worked as a genre and portrait painter in Antwerp. At the age of 21 he held his first exhibition. In 1881 he painted a portrait of Gustaaf Wappers, a leading painter of the Belgian Romantic school.

At the end of the 19th century, panoramas, large artworks that show a wide, all-encompassing view of a particular subject such as a landscape, military battle or other historical event, were all the rage in Europe. These paintings were typically displayed in a space purposefully built to host the panaromas. Boom's teacher Verlat created a few panoramas with the assistance of his pupil including Boom. He became in 1885 a teacher at the Antwerp Academy, a position he would hold until 1924. In 1932, he was appointed to the board of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

Boom also worked on the monumental decorative works in the City Halls of Antwerp (a collaboration with Piet Verhaert, Edgard Farasyn, Edouard de Jans and Henri Houben) and Hoogstraten. He was awarded the Knight's Cross in the Order of Leopold.

On 13 February 1939 Karel Boom died at the age of 80.