Eugeen Van Mieghem
Biography1875 - 1930
About the artist
Eugeen van Mieghem was a Belgian artist born in the port of Antwerp on October 1, 1875.
From a tender age Van Mieghem showed a talent for drawing. He was introduced to the work of Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Camille Pissarro, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and others at an exhibition organised by Flemish painter and architect Henry van de Velde at the Antwerp Academy around 1892.
Van Mieghem attended the Antwerp Academy but was sent from school because of his subject matters and his free way of working with them. He joined an anarchist group and by the early 1900s was recognised as one of the most promising artists of the Antwerp school. But despite his fame he would never renounce his idealism. He became the artist of the typical harbour folk.
Eugeen van Mieghem had his first success at La Libre Esthétique in Brussels where his pastel and drawings hung alongside works by French impressionists such as Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, Jean Renoir and Édouard Vuillard.
In 1902 Van Mieghem married Augustine Pautre. Two years later she fell ill and Van Mieghem depicted her in an impressive series of drawings that rate alongside similar work by such artists as Rembrandt and Ferdinand Hodler. Emotionally scarred after the death of his wife Van Mieghem didn’t show any of his work anymore until 1910.
After his first individual exhibition at the Royal Society of Art of Antwerp in 1912 Van Mieghem was met with international interest and acclaim and exhibitions followed in Germany and Netherlands.
In 1929 he became a teacher of life drawing at the Academy in Antwerp and he participated in exhibitions every year until his death on March 24, 1930. Van Mieghem had no equal when it came down to drawing and painting the lives of ordinary people.
From a tender age Van Mieghem showed a talent for drawing. He was introduced to the work of Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Camille Pissarro, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and others at an exhibition organised by Flemish painter and architect Henry van de Velde at the Antwerp Academy around 1892.
Van Mieghem attended the Antwerp Academy but was sent from school because of his subject matters and his free way of working with them. He joined an anarchist group and by the early 1900s was recognised as one of the most promising artists of the Antwerp school. But despite his fame he would never renounce his idealism. He became the artist of the typical harbour folk.
Eugeen van Mieghem had his first success at La Libre Esthétique in Brussels where his pastel and drawings hung alongside works by French impressionists such as Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, Jean Renoir and Édouard Vuillard.
In 1902 Van Mieghem married Augustine Pautre. Two years later she fell ill and Van Mieghem depicted her in an impressive series of drawings that rate alongside similar work by such artists as Rembrandt and Ferdinand Hodler. Emotionally scarred after the death of his wife Van Mieghem didn’t show any of his work anymore until 1910.
After his first individual exhibition at the Royal Society of Art of Antwerp in 1912 Van Mieghem was met with international interest and acclaim and exhibitions followed in Germany and Netherlands.
In 1929 he became a teacher of life drawing at the Academy in Antwerp and he participated in exhibitions every year until his death on March 24, 1930. Van Mieghem had no equal when it came down to drawing and painting the lives of ordinary people.
