Flori Van Acker or Florimond Marie Van Acker (6 April 1858 – 14 March 1940) was a neo-romantic, impressionist Belgian painter, engraver, stamp designer and director of the Academy of Bruges.
Life
Flori van Acker was born in
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...
in 1858. His father was a wool trader. Flori van Acker studied at the Academy in Bruges with Bruno Van Hollebeke and Edward Wallaeys, later at the
Antwerp academy
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp ( nl, Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Antwerpen) is an art academy located in Antwerp, Belgium. It is one of the oldest of its kind in Europe. It was founded in 1663 by David Teniers the Younger, ...
with
Charles Verlat
Charles Verlat or Karel Verlat (25 November 182423 October 1890) was a Belgium, Belgian painter, watercolorist, engraver (printmaker), Visual arts education, art educator and director of the Antwerp Academy. He painted many subjects and was par ...
Jean-François Portaels
Jean-François Portaels or Jan Portaels (3 April 1818 – 8 February 1895) was a Belgian painter of genre scenes, biblical stories, landscapes, portraits and orientalist subjects. He was also a teacher and director of the Academy of Fine Arts ...
and history painter
Joseph Stallaert
Joseph Stallaert (19 March 1825, Merchtem - 24 November 1903, Ixelles) was a Belgian painter; best known for his scenes from antiquity.
Life
His parents were merchants and he was originally destined for a career in business. The person he was ...
.
In line with the trend towards realism of the time, he went to live in the fishing town
Knokke
Knokke () is a town in the municipality of Knokke-Heist, which is located in the province of West Flanders in Flanders, Belgium. The town itself has 15,708 inhabitants (2007), while the municipality of Knokke-Heist has 33,818 inhabitants (2009).
...
in 1882 where he made paintings of the life of the fishermen. There was a large artist colony in Knokke at time which included Alfred Verwee, Louis Artan, Firmin Baes, Richard Baseleer, Alfred Bastien, Henri Cassiers, Franz Courtens and Paul-Jean Clays.
In 1883 he came Second in the Belgian
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...
. After several years of travel which took him, among others to the United Kingdom, France and Germany, he settled in Brussels. Here he became friends with
Jean Delville
Jean Delville (19 January 1867 – 19 January 1953) was a Belgian people, Belgian symbolist painter, author, poet, polemicist, teacher, and Theosophist. Delville was the leading exponent of the Belgian Idealist movement in art during the 1890s. ...
. He held an exhibition in Brussels with L'Union des Arts ('The Union of the Arts'), a Brussels-based association of artists that existed from 1876 to 1885. In 1885 he was a co-founder, together with
Franz Meerts
Franz Meerts or Frans Meerts (Ghent, 1836 – City of Brussels, Brussels, May 1896) was a Belgians, Belgian painter and aquarellist known for his interior scenes, genre scenes, still lifes and landscapes.Joseph Middeleer of the Brussels art circle 'Voorwaarts' ('Forward'), a regrouping of the defunct "L'Union des Arts".
In 1887 he returned to Bruges, where he was a teacher at the local Academy. In 1910 he became director of this institution, a position he retained until 1926. During that period he also contributed to the revival of Bruges pottery. He further made designs for , a sculptor from Bruges.
Work
Van Acker was a painter of Bruges cityscapes and popular neighborhoods, landscapes, genre scenes, the life of the fisherman, historical scenes religious works and portraits. He was a very prolific designer of posters. As an amateur photographer, he was an active member of Bruges' Cercle Photographique.
His students included the modernist painter and his nephew .Alfred Joseph Auguste van Neste /ref>
File:De heilige Paulus voor de Areopagus in Athene, 1882, Groeningemuseum, 0040652000.jpg, ''Saint Paul at the Areopagus'', 1882, Groeningemuseum, Brugge
File:De meikoningin, 1900, Groeningemuseum, 0040803000.jpg, ''De meikoningin'', 1900 Groeningemuseum, Brugge
File:Portret van burggravin Godelieve du Bus de Gésignies, 1908, Groeningemuseum, 0043322000.jpg, ''Portrait of Godelieve du Bus de Gésignies'', 1908, Groeningemuseum, Brugge
File:Florimond Van Acker 001.JPG, ''
Veurne-Ambacht Veurne-Ambacht was a viscounty ( ''kasselrij'', ''burggraafschap'') in the County of Flanders. Agriculture contributed mostly to the prosperous area.
In the viscountship's capital city Veurne, the ''Landhuis''In the city of Veurne's center, the nam ...