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Schilderijen van Frans Van Damme Belgische kunstschilder

van Damme Frans

Frans Van Damme was a Belgian painter, born in Theet-Hamme near Waasmunster in 1858 and died in Brussels in 1925. He first followed an artistic education at the Drawing School in Waasmunster under the guidance of his uncle Leopold (Pol) Van Damme. Afterwards he followed further education at the Academies in Dendermonde (in 1874-1875) and Sint-Niklaas and at the Academy in Antwerp under the direction of Jacobs and Van Den Bussche (in 1877-1879, among others). During that period he lived in Antwerp for some time and from 1881 in Brussels. He returned to Waasmunster in 1884. In 1887 he was represented at the 'Première Exposition Française' in Tunis with De Schelde and obtained an honorary diploma with a gold medal. He married in 1902 in Uccle and then settled in Brussels. He had a studio in Zeebrugge, where he often stayed, and together with a doctor friend he owned a boat with which they explored the sea and sailed along the coast to France and the Netherlands. He realized marines, fishing scenes, Scheldt, harbor and coastal views, landscapes from the Waasland. He had a powerful brushstroke and often worked in gray tonalities and generously applied paint paste. He would have been a teacher at the Academies of Antwerp and Brussels, but no evidence of this was found. He regularly took part in the Paris Salons from 1903. He also exhibited at the Salon de Gent in 1883 (View in Willemsdorp; the Netherlands and the surroundings of Dordrecht), at the 35th Exhibition in the Casino in Ghent in 1892 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Koninklijke Maatschappij ter Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Ghent (Snow, Waxing tide; picket fence in Nieuwpoort, Het Zeegat; surroundings of Nieuwpoort, Stranded barges; rainy weather), at the 'Exposition Internationale' in Brussels in 1897 (Snow effect), at the 'Exposition universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles' in 1910, at the Premier Salon de Noël in Laeken in 1912, in Dendermonde in 1923. In 1914 the studio in Zeebrugge was bombed and destroyed by fire together with the stock of paintings. The family then settled back in Brussels to return to Zeebrugge in 1922. In 1923, the artist returned to Brussels alone and ended up in the Hospice Pacheco in 1923, where he died a little less than a year later, poor and abandoned. We can find his work in the collection of the municipality of Knokke-Heist (Rural House). Bibliography: Laura Vidy's Quest for Artist Frans Van Damme, published independently in Aalst in 1998. He is listed in De Dendermondse Schilderschool, BAS I and Two Centuries of Signatures of Belgian Artists. (piron)