#master painter

The Girl in a Picture Frame, 1641

Artist: Rembrandt

Translation: “Here lies that famous Raphael, by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die."

Inscription across Raphael’s tomb in the Roman Pantheon

THÉOPHILE "THÉO" VAN RYSSELBERGHE 

 On this day of 23rd November, Théophile "Théo" van Rysselberghe (23 November 1862 – 14 December 1926) was born in Ghent, Belgium.

He was a neo-impressionist painter, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the twentieth century.

He studied at the Academy of Ghent under Theo Canneel and at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels under Jean-François Portaels. The North African paintings of Portaels had started an orientalist fashion in Belgium. Their impact would strongly influence the young Théo van Rysselberghe.

At only eighteen, he exhibited at the Salon of Ghent. He painted Self-portrait with pipe, and Child in an open spot of the forest, and he makes his first steps towards impressionism.

Between 1882 and 1888 he made three trips to Morocco and he came in touch with contemporary artists like Frantz Charlet, Darío de Regoyos. Constantin Meunier, John Singer Sargent, Ralph Curtis. Emile Verhaeren. During this period he created pieces like Spanish woman, Sevillan woman,  Arabian street cobbler, Arabian boy, Resting guard  The kief smokers, The orange seller and a seascape The strait (setting sun), Tanger . Arabian phantasia, Abraham Sicsu, Caravan in the mountains past Schliat, Gate of Mansour-El-Hay, Meknès, and Morocco (the great souk).

The painting on his visits to Morocco depicted bright lights and colour but as he drew toward Impressionism they are rather subdued colours especially in Jeanne and Marguerite Schlobach, Octave Maus, Camille Van Mons, Marguerite Van Mons, Woman with Japanese album, Madame Picard in her Loge, Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht, and Het Zwin at high tide.

He discovered the pointillist technique when he saw Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte. Together with Henry Van de Velde, Georges Lemmen, Xavier Mellery, Willy Schlobach, Alfred William Finch, and Anna Boch he "imported" this style to Belgium.

Théo van Rysselberghe abandoned realism and became an adept of pointillism which reflected in his Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht, Madame Edmond Picard, Pierre-Marie Olin. He came across renowned painters Eugène Boch, Sisley, Signac, Degas, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

His famous portrait of Alice Sèthe, Dunes in Cadzand, The rainbow were inspired by Pointillism.

In Paris, he had a meeting with Theo Van Gogh and managed thus to invite Vincent van Gogh to the exhibition in Brussels. That is where Van Gogh sold Vigne Rouge in Montmajour, the only painting he ever sold.

In 1897, van Rysselberghe moved to Paris. Along with Paul Signac, Maximilien Luce, Aristide Delannoy, Alexandre Steinlen, Camille Pissarro, Van Dongen, George Willaume, etc., he contributed to the magazine Temps Nouveaux.

In his later years of his life, his approach became more relaxed, and abandoned Pointillism completely.

After some prospecting, touring, his brother Octave van Rysselberghe, built him a residence at the Côte d'Azur and became detached from the Brussels art scene.

Théo van Rysselberghe was one of the prominent co-founders of the Belgian artistic circle Les XX s, under the patronage of Octave Maus, whose notable members were James Ensor, Willy Finch, Fernand Khnopff, Félicien Rops, Auguste Rodin, and Paul Signac.

Much of his works still remain in private collections and rarely be seen. One occasion was the retrospective Théo van Rysselberghe in Brussels and later in The Hague.