Henri Evenepoel

1872 – 1899

Belgian painter and printmaker. His mother died when he was two, and he was brought up by his severe but cultivated father, a senior civil servant and musicologist. He studied in Brussels under the architect Ernest Acker (1852-1912) at the Académie des Beaux-Arts (1889-90), the painter Ernest Blanc-Garin (1843-1916) and the decorative painter Adolphe Crespin (1859-1944), then entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris on 21 October 1892 as a pupil of Pierre Victor. Galland. Galland died in November 1892, and Evenepoel was admitted to Gustave Moreau 's atelier on 14 March 1893. There he came into contact with Georges Rouault and became friendly with Henri Matisse. For more than four years Evenepoel was very close to Moreau, a demanding teacher who appreciated his sensitivity and determination and encouraged him to develop a distinct artistic personality. In 1894 Evenepoel left Paris to work independently without a teacher. In 1897 he stayed in Algeria. In 1899 he decided to return to Belgium, however, he died in Paris of typhoid fever. Evenepoel worked only five years as an artist and was strongly influenced by Whistler and Manet, yet his work retains its own individual character.

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