Emile Claus | Luminist / Genre painter

Emile Clause (1849-1924)🎨 was a Belgian painter🎨 who developed the distinct style of impressionism known as "Luminism🎨".

Emile Claus was born on 1849, in Sint-Eloois-Vijve, a village in West-Flanders (Belgium), at the banks of the river Lys.

Emile was the twelfth child in a family of thirteen. Father Alexander was a grocer-publican and for some time town councillor.

Mother Celestine Verbauwhede came from a Brabant skipper’s family and had her hands full with her offspring.

As a child, little Emile already loved drawing and on Sunday went three kilometres on foot to the Academy of Waregem to learn how to draw.

He graduated from the Academy with a gold medal. Although father Claus allowed him to take drawing classes, he did not fancy an artist's career for his son. Instead, he sent Emile as a baker’s apprentice to Lille, France. Emile learned French there but the job of a baker clearly did not appeal to him.

He also worked for some time with the Belgian Railways and as a representative in the flax trade.

The urge to paint did not let go of Emile and he wrote a letter for help to the famous composer and musician Peter Benoit, who live in nearby Harelbeke and was an occasional visitor of the family. Only with some effort, Peter Benoit managed to convince father Claus to allow his son to train at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts.

Claus did have to pay for his studies himself though. After graduating, he stayed to live in Antwerp.