Theo van Rysselberghe

1862-1926

European Artist

Rysselberghe was born in Ghent in 1862. He studied art at the Academies in Ghent and Brussels, and in 1881 exhibited for the first time at the Salon in Brussels. After the success of the French Impressionists exhibition in Brussels in early 1880s, he began to explore their technique. In 1883 he became a co-founder of the avant-garde group of Brussels intellectuals ‘Les-Vingt’. In 1886 the painter traveled to Paris, where he met Georges Seurat and turned to Pointillism himself, becoming the main exponent of the style in Belgium. After the death of Georges Seurat, Théo van Rysselberghe gradually abandoned the Pointillist technique was to broaden his methods of expressing himself.