International studio (34.1908)

Franz Couriers, Flemish Painter

started for Brussels, wherein he had never set foot.
Then began the hard, almost desperate, struggle
for existence.
A garret in some sort of house at the end of an
avenue in the outskirts was his first abode, where
he cooked his own humble meals. But he set to
work bravely, and, by a lucky chance, made the
acquaintance of Stacquet, the water-colourist, who
bought his first picture. Soon after another was
sold at the Cercle Artistique for twelve hundred
francs, which meant a fortune ! Thereupon
Courtens left his hovel, and set up in a real atelier
in Brussels. This was a rather bold step for a
young painter with no resources beyond the pro-
ducts of his brush, plus a fixed determination to
strike an independent line of art for himself. But
he was not long in making himself known. At the
Ghent Salon of 1874 he exhibited a canvas,
described in the catalogue as Bords de Canal,
which gave him some encouragement. His fine
virtuosity and his brilliant colouring were gladly
recognised. Nevertheless it was not till the

Brussels Salon of 1884, where he exhibited La
Sortie de /’Office (now the property of the Brussels
Gallery) and Les Barques a monies, that he won
celebrity. A few years later, at the Paris Universal
Exhibition of 1889, he won his apotheosis in the
shape of a premiere medaille, this honour being
confirmed soon after by other similar distinctions
at other important artistic tourneys, notably that of
the Brussels Universal Exhibition of 1897.
One of the master’s best works seen at this
Exhibition has been thus described in the “ Revue
de l’Art Ancien et Moderne ” by M. Fierens-
Gevaert :—
“ In his Neige, a work of fairly large dimensions,
representing a glade fringed by beeches and elms,
Courtens has recovered all the best of his quali-
ties. Complete grasp of the great decorative
harmonies, suppleness of technique—now vigorous,
as in the handling of the tree trunks, now delicate
as possible in the bluish transparency of the bare
branches—perfect exactitude in the difficult matter
of harmonising the relative parts in a white sym-


“ LES VIEILI.ES DE SCHIEDAM

BY FRANZ COURTENS