Paul Cauchie (1875-1952), was a versatile artist: a painter, interior designer, architect and interior decorator.
After starting architectural studies at the Academy of Antwerp, he decided to switch to painting. In the last decade of the 19th century, he attended the Academy of Brussels (1893-1898). A student of Montald, Cauchie learned a rediscovered technique for decorating exteriors as well as interiors: sgraffito.
Scraffito is a decorative technique involving covering a first dark-coloured layer of coating with a thin light-coloured layer. A drawing is then created by scraping the light-coloured coating while it is still wet in order to reveal the dark coating underneath. The lines of the drawings appear in relief in a dark colour. The light-coloured layer of coating can also be applied in colour. The motifs depicted may be ornamental or figurative. They employ a vast range of colours, a rich stylistic repertoire (plants, animals, symbols, history, mythology, feminine) and can provide information about the building (function, year of construction) and its owner.
La Maison Cauchie
