Frans Van Damme (1858 – 1925) was a Belgian painter.

Biography

Frans Van Damme was born in

Hamme Hamme () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Hamme proper, Kastel Moerzeke, and . In 2018, Hamme had a total population of 24,827. The total area is 40.21 km². The cur ...

on 19 July 1858.Burgerlijke stand Huwelijksakten - Vlaams-Brabant en Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest, State Archives He is best known for his work as a

marine painter Marine art or maritime art is a form of figurative art (that is, painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture) that portrays or draws its main inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea—a genre part ...

. Until the age of 12 he attended primary school in

Sint-Niklaas Sint-Niklaas (; french: Saint-Nicolas, ) is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Sint-Niklaas proper and the towns of Belsele, Nieuwkerken-Waas, and . Sint-Nikl ...

. He lived in

Waasmunster Waasmunster () is a municipality located in the Flemish province of East Flanders, in Belgium. The municipality only comprises the town of Waasmunster proper. In 2021, Waasmunster had a total population of 10,912. The total area is 31.93 km2. ...

in his youth. At the age of 27, in 1885, he became professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, and in 1887 at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. He won the

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 ...

and was awarded gold medals in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, whose

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the list of ...

owns two of his works. Van Damme was a virtuoso and his work in keeping with the 19th-century tradition of Impressionist realism. He may be compared to

Louis Artan Louis Victor Antonio Artan de Saint-Martin (20 April 1837 – 23 May 1890)Profile @ the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie. was a Dutch-Belgian painter and etcher who specialized in seascapes. Biography He was born into a noble fami ...

. Within this emerging tradition he was nonetheless able to develop his own style. He had several residences and his work is very scattered. His life had a tragic end: his studio in

Zeebrugge Zeebrugge (, from: ''Brugge aan zee'' meaning "Bruges at Sea", french: Zeebruges) is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeeb ...

was destroyed by a bombardment in 1914. He was held captive for a year and came out of the war ruined. He died in Brussels on 30 April 1925.

Gallery

File:Frans-van-damme 04.jpg, ''Vaches sur fond de paysage avec moulin'', oil on canvas File:Frans-van-damme 09.jpg, ''The river Scheldt near Bergen op Zoom'', oil on canvas File:Frans-van-damme 02.jpg, ''Les passeurs sur le fleuve'', oil on panel File:Frans Van Damme landscape 02.jpg, ''Dutch Landscape with a Windmill and a Farmer with His Cattle'', oil on canvas

References

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Damme, Frans 1858 births 1925 deaths 19th-century Belgian painters 19th-century Belgian male artists 20th-century Belgian painters People from Hamme 20th-century Belgian male artists