Theo Van Rysselberghe

Theo van Rysselberghe – Studies at the Brussels Academy; quick artistic success

Theo van Rysselberghe was born in Ghent in Belgium on 23 November 1862. The younger brother of the Flemish architect Octave van Rysselberghe exhibited great artistic talent during his time at school and had already exhibited two portraits by the age of 18 and, with his parent’s blessing, moved to Brussels to study art. In Jean-François Portaels’ painting class at the academy he met his compatriot James Ensor, two years his senior, but soon refused to follow the prescribed guidelines, and instead went his own way. In turn, van Rysselberghe won over the critics and public with his early work, which displayed strong influences from established masters such as Frans Hals, Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet. Of his first paintings, which presented their sombre-coloured motifs in a realistic painting manner, two portraits were accepted for the Ghent Salon in 1880. 

Study trips to Spain and Morocco; Impressionist phase

Theo van Rysselberghe celebrated further exhibition success at the Brussel’s Salon and left for a long study trip to Spain and Morocco in the winter of the following year. The strange and enticing exotic world on the threshold of the Orient inspired the artist to create a series of pictures with a Mediterranean flair which he soon exhibited after his return in 1883. That same year, van Rysselberghe was involved in the foundation of the Société des Vingt, also known as Les XX, Les VIngt or The Society of the Twenty, a group of avant-garde artists to which his earlier colleagues James Ensor, Fernand Khnopff, Rodolphe Wytsman and the sisters Anna and Eugène Boch also belonged. One central issue of the group was the artistic exchange between France and Belgium. Van Rysselberghe also contributed several works to the jointly organised exhibition of French Impressionists, and it was in the course of his engagement with that movement, that he developed an enthusiasm for Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. 

At the summit of Pointillism with Georges Seurat and Paul Signac

On a trip to Paris, Theo van Rysselberghe met the French painter Georges Seurat and was deeply fascinated by Seurat’s self-developed pointillist painting technique. He followed the model of his newly won artist friend for two decades, emulating him and his congenial fellow painter Paul Signac, establishing himself as the great Flemish master of Pointillism. He worked for a time in Signac’s studio and visited Camille Pissarro, and also had some success as a sculptor and graphic artist – his poster designs for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, among others, are appreciated still in the 21st century. After Seurat’s death, van Rysselberghe developed a certain distance to Pointillism and in old age painted a number of light-hearted nudes in cheerful colours.  

Theo van Rysselberghe died on 13 December 1929 in Saint-Clair near Le Lavandou in France.