KNOKKE-HEIST, BELGIUM

Painter of genre scenes; watercolourist, draughtsman and illustrator.

Gustave Flasschoen was a pupil of Frans Stroobant at the Academy of Molenbeek and of Henri-Joseph Van Dyck, a painter in Schaerbeek. After some study trips in Spain, Russia, Holland and later on in Africa (Algeria and Morocco), he gave preference, with great success, to orientalism.

Flasschoen also produced art posters and some books. He contributed as a draughtsman to the Brussels newspaper “Le Petit Bleu”.

His sketching is elegant, his colours are bright, sometimes aggressive. A personal talent which is not connected with any specific group. “Everything that is living and true is always strongly expressive”, said Clément Morro, “and Gustave Flasschoen knows how to move us by his rustic scenes, his simple pieces of nature, as only the great Flemish Masters were able to do.”