1858-1921 Belgian Fernand Khnopff Gallery Fernand Khnopff was born to a wealthy family that was part of the high bourgeoisie for generations. Khnopff's ancestors had lived in Flanders since the early 17th-century but were of Austrian and Portuguese descent. Most male members of his family had been lawyers or judges, and young Fernand was destined for a juridical career. In his early childhood (1859-1864) he lived in Bruges where his father was appointed Substitut Du Procureur Du Roi. His childhood memories of the medieval city of Bruges would play a significant role in his later work. In 1864 the family moved to Brussels. To please his parents he went to law school at the Free University of Brussels (now divided into the Universite Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel) when he was 18 years old. During this period he developed a passion for literature, discovering the works of Baudelaire, Flaubert, Leconte de Lisle and other mostly French authors. With his younger brother Georges Khnopff - also a passionate amateur of contemporary music and poetry - he started to frequent Jeune Belgique ("Young Belgium"), a group of young writers including Max Waller, Georges Rodenbach, Iwan Gilkin and Emile Verhaeren. Khnopff left University due to a lack of interest in his law studies and began to frequent the studio of Xavier Mellery, who made him familiar with the art of painting. On the 25th of October 1876 he enrolled for the Cours De Dessin Apres Nature ("course of drawing after nature") at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts en Bruxelles. At the Academie, his most famous fellow student was James Ensor, whom he disliked from the start. Between 1877 and 1880 Khnopff made several trips to Paris where he discovered the work of Delacroix, Ingres, Moreau and Stevens. At the Paris World Fair of 1878 he became acquainted with the oeuvre of Millais and Burne-Jones. During his last year at the Acad??mie in 1878-1879 he neglected his classes in Brussels and lived for a while in Passy, were he visited the Cours Libres of Jules Joseph Lefebvre at the Acad??mie Julian.   Related Paintings of Fernand Khnopff :. | Portrait of Marguerite Khnopff | Head of a Woman | Study For Memories | Afier Josephin Peladan Le Vice supreme | Nude Study |
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Beardsley Limner
American Colonial Era Painter, active 1785-1805
BOURSSE, Esaias
Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1631-1672 He was the youngest son of immigrants from Wallonia. His parents, Jacques Boursse and Anna des Forest, married in 1618 in Amsterdam. We know nothing more about the education of Esaias Boursse, other than the fact that he travelled to Italy in about 1650 to study the great Renaissance examples. No reminders of those examples is to be found in his work. In the past art historians have tried to place him among Rembrandt's pupils. There is no objective evidence at all to prove this though. Maybe this opinion has been inspired by the fact that the painters were neighbours in the Sint Antoniebreestraat in Amsterdam (nowadays called Jodenbreestraat, still housing the Rembrandt House Museum). Boursse's financial position will not have been good, since in 1661 he sailed with the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, on the ship Amersfoort. It travelled to Ceylon (nowadays called Sri Lanka). Boursse drew the inhabitants, landscapes and city views, which have been preserved in an album which can be found in the print room of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. In 1663, the painter was back in Amsterdam. In 1672, Boursse sailed with Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie again. The Amersfoort set sail on October 24 and on November 16 Boursse died at sea. The life of Esaias Boursse is the story of a painter who could not earn a living by painting alone and therefore had to look for an alternative source of income. The fact that he was no exception is proven by the life stories of for example Jan Steen (who was also an innkeeper) and Johannes Vermeer (who was also an art dealer). A major difference though, is the fact that Steen and Vermeer had to feed and house a (large) family. Boursse seems to have remained unmarried and childless. Financially, Boursse's career was a success. He remains one of the highest paid artists in living memory.
Antoine Roux
1765-1835