Théophile "Théo" van Rysselberghe (23 November 1862 – 13 December 1926) was a Belgian
neo-impressionist painter
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the twentieth century.
Biography
Early years
Born in
Ghent
Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...
to a French-speaking bourgeois family, he studied first at the Academy of Ghent under Theo Canneel and from 1879 at the
Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels ( ''(ArBA-EsA)''; ) is an art school in Brussels, Belgium, founded in 1711. Starting from modest beginnings in a single room in Brussels Town Hall, Brussels' Town Hall, it has since 1876 been operat ...
in
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
under the directorship of
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. Between 1882 and 1888, he made three trips to Morocco, staying there in total a year and a half.
Age only eighteen, he had already participated at the Salon of Ghent, showing two portraits. Soon afterwards followed his ''Self-portrait with pipe'' (1880), painted in somber colours in the Belgian realistic tradition of the times. His ''Child in an open spot of the forest'' (1880) departs from this style and he makes his first steps towards impressionism. Soon he would develop his own realistic style, akin to impressionism. In 1881, he exhibited for the first time at the Salon in Brussels.
First trip to Morocco
The next year he travelled (following in the footsteps of Jean-François Portaels) extensively in Spain and Morocco together with his friend
Frantz Charlet and the
Asturian painter
DarÃo de Regoyos. He especially admired the 'old masters' in the
Museo del Prado
The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...
. In
Seville
Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...
they met
Constantin Meunier, who was copying
Pedro Campaña's ''Descent from the Cross''. From this Spanish trip stem the following portraits : ''Spanish woman'' (1881) and ''Sevillan woman'' (1882), already completely different in style. When he set foot in
Tanger at the end of October 1882, a whole new world opened up for him: so close to Europe and yet completely different. He would stay there for four months, drawing and painting the picturesque scenes on the street, the
kasbah and in the
souk: ''Arabian street cobbler'' (1882), ''Arabian boy'' (1882), ''Resting guard'' (1883)
Back in Belgium, he showed about 30 works of his trip at the "Cercle Artistique et Littéraire" in Ghent. It was an instant success, especially ''The kief smokers'', ''The orange seller'' and a seascape ''The strait (setting sun), Tanger'' (1882).
In April 1883 he exhibited these scenes of everyday Mediterranean life at the salon
L'Essor, in Brussels, before an enthusiast public. It was also around this time that he befriended the writer and poet
Emile Verhaeren, whom he would later portray several times.
In September 1883 van Rysselberghe went to
Haarlem
Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...
to study the light in the works of
Frans Hals
Frans Hals the Elder (, ; ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem, a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate thei ...
. The accurate rendering of light would continue to occupy his mind. There he also met the American painter
William Merritt Chase.
Les XX
Théo van Rysselberghe was one of the prominent co-founders of the Belgian artistic circle ''
Les XX'' on 28 October 1883. This was a circle of young radical artists, under the patronage, as secretary, of the Brussels jurist and art lover
Octave Maus (1856–1919). They rebelled against the outmoded
academism of the time and the prevailing artistic standards. Among the most notable members were
James Ensor
James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for most of his life. He was associated with the artistic ...
,
Willy Finch,
Fernand Khnopff,
Félicien Rops, and later
Auguste Rodin
François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...
and
Paul Signac. This membership brought van Rysselberghe in contact with other radical artists, such as
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...
, who had exhibited in ''Les XX'' in 1884. His influence as a portrait painter can be seen in van Rysselberghe's portrait of ''Octave Maus as a dandy'' (1885). Van Rysselberghe would paint several portraits of Octave Maus and his wife between 1883 and 1890.
Second trip to Morocco
In November 1883 he left again, together with Frantz Charlet, for Tanger. During his stay of one year, he was in constant correspondence with Octave Maus, urging him to accept several new names for the first exhibition of "Les XX": Constantin Meunier,
Alfred Verwee,
William Merritt Chase. (He had met him in 1883 in
Haarlem
Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...
.) In April 1884 he visited
Andalucia in the company of the American painter
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era, Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil ...
and the gentleman-painter
Ralph Curtis. He also invited them to the exhibition in Brussels. This time, van Rysselberghe tried to surpass himself. His large, exotic painting ''Arabian phantasia'', a theme introduced by
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...
, is his best known work from this period. It is bathed in the harsh light of the hot Moroccan sun. From now on van Rysselberghe would be obsessed by light. But lack of funds forced him to return to Belgium at the end of October 1884.
At the second show of ''Les XX'' in 1885 Théo van Rysselberghe showed his ''Arabian phantasia'' and other images and paintings from his second Moroccan trip, such as ''Abraham Sicsu (interpreter in Tanger)'' (1884).
Impressionism
Yet his next portraits are in rather subdued colours, using different black or purple gradations contrasting with light colours: ''Jeanne and Marguerite Schlobach'' (1884), ''
Octave Maus'' (1885), ''Camille Van Mons'' (1886), ''Marguerite Van Mons'' (1886) (to be compared with ''Portrait of Gabrielle Braun'' (1886) by
Fernand Khnopff).
He saw the works of the impressionists
Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
and
Auguste Renoir at the show of ''Les XX'' in 1886. He was deeply impressed. He experimented with this technique, as can be seen in ''Woman with Japanese album'' (1886). This impressionist influence became prominent in his paintings ''Madame Picard in her Loge'' (1886) and ''Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht'' (1886) (painted in a palette of bright colours). In 1887 he painted some impressionist seascapes at the Belgian coast : ''Het Zwin at high tide'' (1887)
Rysselberghe influenced the work of his friend
Omer Coppens away from
realism towards
indigenous impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
and painted at least one portrait of him in oils.
Because of his growing ties with the Parisian art scene, Octave Maus sent Rysselberghe as a talent scout to Paris to look out for new talent for the next exhibitions of ''Les XX''.
Neo-impressionism
He discovered the
pointillist technique when he saw
Georges Seurat's ''
La Grande Jatte'' at the eighth impressionist exhibition in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 1886. Together with
Henry Van de Velde,
Georges Lemmen,
Xavier Mellery,
Willy Schlobach and
Alfred William Finch
Alfred William (Willy) Finch (1854 –1930) was a Ceramics (art), ceramist and Painting, painter in the Pointillism, pointillist and Neo-Impressionism, Neo-Impressionist style. Born in Brussels to British parents, he spent most of his creati ...
and
Anna Boch
Anna-Rosalie Boch (10 February 1848 – 25 February 1936), known as Anna, was a Belgium, Belgian Painting, painter, art collector, and the only female member of the artistic group, Les XX. Born in La Louvière, Saint-Vaast, Hainaut Province, Hai ...
he "imported" this style to Belgium. Seurat was invited to the next salon of ''Les XX'' in Brussels in 1887. But there his ''La Grande Jatte'' was heavily criticized by the art critics as "incomprehensible gibberish applied to the noble art of painting".
Théo van Rysselberghe abandoned
realism and became an adept of pointillism. This brought him sometimes in heavy conflict with
James Ensor
James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for most of his life. He was associated with the artistic ...
. In 1887 van Rysselberghe already experimented with this style, as can be seen in his ''Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht'' (1887) and ''Madame Edmond Picard'' (1887). While staying in summer 1887 a few weeks with Eugène Boch (brother of
Anna Boch
Anna-Rosalie Boch (10 February 1848 – 25 February 1936), known as Anna, was a Belgium, Belgian Painting, painter, art collector, and the only female member of the artistic group, Les XX. Born in La Louvière, Saint-Vaast, Hainaut Province, Hai ...
) in Batignolles, near Paris, he met several painters from the Parisian scene such as Sisley, Signac, Degas and especially
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Count, ''Comte'' Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colour ...
. He appreciated especially the talent of Toulouse-Lautrec. His portrait ''Pierre-Marie Olin'' (1887) closely resembles the style of Toulouse-Lautrec of that time. He managed to invite several of them, including Signac, Forain, and Toulouse-Lautrec to the next exhibition of ''Les XX''.
Third trip to Morocco
In December 1887 he was invited, together with Edmond Picard, to accompany a Belgian economic delegation to
Meknès, Morocco. During these three months he made many color pencil sketches. He also drew a portrait of the sultan
Hassan I. Back in Brussels, he started painting his impressions, relying on his photos, notes and sketches. His ''Nomad encampment'' (1887) is probably his first
neo-impressionist work. In the ''Caravan in the mountains past Schliat'', the influence of Seurat is unmistakable. His ''Gate of Mansour-El-Hay in Meknès'' (1887) and ''Morocco (the great souk)'' (1887) are also painted in pointillist style, but still with short strokes and not with points. These are among the rare pointillist paintings of Morocco. When he had finished these paintings, he stopped completely with this Moroccan period in his life.
He now turned to portraiture, resulting in a series of remarkable neo-impressionist portraits.
Pointillism

His famous portrait of Alice Sèthe (1888) in blue and gold would become a turning point in his life. This time he used merely points in the portrait. She would later marry the sculptor
Paul Dubois. Her sister, Maria Sèthe, also a model of van Rysselberghe, would marry the renowned
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
architect
Henry Van de Velde. In that period he made many Neo-impressionistic portraits, such as the portrait of his wife Maria and their daughter Elisabeth. He had married Marie Monnom in 1889. They went on their honeymoon to the south of England and then to Brittany. This would also result in a number of Neo-impressionistic paintings. In Paris he had a meeting with
Theo Van Gogh and managed thus to invite
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...
to the next exhibition in Brussels. That is where Van Gogh sold ''Vigne Rouge in Montmajour'' to
Anna Boch
Anna-Rosalie Boch (10 February 1848 – 25 February 1936), known as Anna, was a Belgium, Belgian Painting, painter, art collector, and the only female member of the artistic group, Les XX. Born in La Louvière, Saint-Vaast, Hainaut Province, Hai ...
, the only painting he ever sold.
Apart from the portraits, he also painted in this period many landscapes and seascapes : "Dunes in Cadzand" (1893), "The rainbow" (1894).
In the 1895 he made long journeys to Athens and Constantinople, Hungary, Romania, Moscow and Saint Petersburg in order to make posters for the "Compagnie des Wagons-lits". One famous work is the poster "Royal Palace Hotel, Ostende" (1899).
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 anarchist magazine '.

In the final years of the 1890s, Théo van Rysselberghe had reached the climax of his Neo-impressionist technique. Slowly he abandoned the use of dots in his portraits and landscapes and began applying somewhat broader strokes : ''The hippodrome at Boulogne-sur-Mer'' (1900) and the group portrait ''Summer afternoon'' (1900), ''Young women on the beach'' (1901), ''Young girl with straw bonnet'' (1901), and ''The Reading'' (1903) (with the contrast between red and blue colours).
After all his years as talent scout for Octave Maus, van Rysselberghe made the mistake of his life: he didn't recognize the talent of the young
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno MarÃa de los Remedios Cipriano de la SantÃsima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
(who was in his Blue Period at that time). He found his works "ugly and uninteresting".
Later years

After 1903, his pointillist technique, which he had used for so many years, became more relaxed and after 1910 he abandoned it completely. His strokes had become longer and he used more often vivid colours and more intense contrasts, or softened hues. He had become a master in applying light and heat in his paintings. His ''Olive trees near Nice'' (1905) remind us of the technique used by
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...
. These longer strokes in red and mauve become prominent in his ''Bathing ladies under the pine trees at Cavalière'' (1905).
During the summer of 1907 he visited the island of
Jersey
Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...
, staying at Madeira Villa, in
St Brelade, where he painted a variety of landscapes, seascapes, flowers and portraits, his most well-known being that of
André Gide, his wife Maria and daughter Elisabeth. He enjoyed his stay so much that he and his family returned to the island in 1908.
After some prospecting, touring on his bike, together with his friend
Henri-Edmond Cross, of the Mediterranean coast between
Hyères and
Monaco
Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...
, he found an interesting spot in Saint-Clair (where Cross already resided). His brother (and neighbour), the architect
Octave van Rysselberghe, built him there a residence in 1911. He then retired to the
Côte d'Azur and became increasingly detached from the Brussels art scene.
Here he continued painting, mostly landscapes of the Mediterranean coast, portraits (of his wife and daughter, and of his brother Octave). In 1910 he received an order for some large decorative murals and flower compositions for the residence of the family Nocard in
Neuilly, France.
From 1905 on, the female nude becomes prominent in his monumental paintings : "After the bath" (1910). His painting ''The vines in October'' (1912) is painted in lively colours of red, green and blue. One of his last works was ''Girl in a bath tub'' (1925).
At the end of his life, he also turned to portrait sculpture, such as the ''Head of André Gide''.
He died in Saint-Clair,
Var, France on 14 December 1926 and was buried in the cemetery of Lavandou, next to his friend and painter
Henri-Edmond Cross.
Much of the works of one of the greatest neo-impressionist painters still remain in private collections. They can only rarely be seen. One recent occasion was the retrospective ''Théo van Rysselberghe'' in Brussels and later in The Hague between February and September 2006. In November 2005, his work ''Port Cette'' (1892) fetched a record 2.6m € at an auction in
New York.
Family
Van Rysselberghe married Marie Monnom in 1889, with whom he had a daughter,
Elizabeth van Rysselberghe. Elizabeth became one of
Rupert Brooke's lovers. His brother
Octave van Rysselberghe (1855–1929) was a distinguished Belgian architect, who collaborated with
Joseph Poelaert and
Henry Van de Velde.
Honours
* 1919: Commander of the
Order of Leopold.
[Royal Decree of H.M. King Albert I on 14.11.1919]
References
Bibliography
*
* P. & V. Berko, "Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875", Knokke 1981, p. 719-721.
*Only catalogue raisonné in existence on paintings pastels, watercolours, drawings, etchings, posters (about 1800 entries); including a supplement with a list of works(319 entries) considered not to be genuine. List of signatures and monogrammes; list of letters by van Rysselberghe to different addressees with short contents; bibliography and list of exhibitions. R.Feltkamp, Editions Racine 2003 Brussels.
*Monography 237 pages R.Feltkamp, Editions Racine 2003 Brussels
*Catalogue of the exhibition "Théo van Rysselberghe" at the "Palais des Beaux Arts", Brussels 'February–May 2006) and the "Gemeentemuseum", The Hague (June–September 2006)
*Catalogue of the exhibition "Théo van Rysselberghe : neo-impressionist" at the "Museum of Fine Arts", Ghent 1993
External links
*
Short biography in DutchFlemish Art Collection: The Reading by Van Rysselberghe supplement to the catalogue raisonné''Signac, 1863–1935'' a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on Théo van Rysselberghe (see index)
{{DEFAULTSORT:van Rysselberghe, Théo
1862 births
1926 deaths
Belgian painters
Post-impressionist painters
Painters from Ghent
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels alumni