Bossuet François, Antoine

François, Antoine Bossuet was a Belgian artist, born in Ypres in 1798 and died in Sint-Joost-ten-Node in 1889. He was a painter and architect. He was educated at the Academy in Antwerp under the direction of G. Herreyns. He then returned to Ostend, where he had grown up as a child. He founded a private academy there and in 1820 became a teacher at the then newly established School of Drawing and Architecture, together with M. Van Cuyck, among others. He traveled to France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. He visited Spain and North Africa in 1841, and traveled again to Spain in 1852 and 1864. He made numerous sketches and studies there for the many Spanish and North African faces, which were later elaborated into paintings in his Brussels studio. He became widely known for his architectural landscapes and cityscapes. Together with J.B. From Moer and F. Stroobant to the romantic vedute painters. Churches, monuments, squares and canals are depicted with great perspective accuracy. He published two works on perspective theory (in 1833 and 1872). He was a teacher of perspective drawing at the Academy in Brussels from 1835 to 1875. Work by François Bossuet can be found in the museums in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Liège. He is listed in the Lexicon of West Flemish visual artists I, BAS I, II and Two centuries of signatures of Belgian artists. (piron)