Henri-Jacques-Edouard Evenepoel

Belgian, 1872–1899

Birth placeNice, France

Death placeParis, France

BiographyBelgian painter and printmaker.

His mother died when he was two, and he was brought up by his severe but cultivated father, a senior civil servant and musicologist. He studied in Brussels under the architect Ernest Acker (1852-1912) at the Académie des Beaux-Arts (1889-90), the painter Ernest Blanc-Garin (1843-1916) and the decorative painter Adolphe Crespin (1859-1944), then entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris on 21 October 1892 as a pupil of P. V. Galland. Galland died in November 1892, and Evenepoel was admitted to Gustave Moreau's atelier on 14 March 1893. There he came into contact with Georges Rouault and became friendly with Henri Matisse, Paul Baignères (1869-1945), Charles Milcendeau (1872-1919), Simon Bussy (1869-1954) and Charles Hoffbauer (1875- c. 1957). For more than four years Evenepoel was very close to Moreau, a demanding teacher who appreciated his sensitivity and determination and encouraged him to develop a distinct artistic personality.

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