By the Riverside

Emile Claus was born on 27 September 1849 in the village of Sint-Eloois-Vijve, nestled along the banks of the river Lys in West Flanders, Belgium. He was the twelfth child in a family of thirteen. His father, Alexander Claus, was a grocer and publican, as well as a town councillor for a time. His mother, Célestine Verbauwhede, came from a family of skippers from Brabant and dedicated her life to raising their large family.

From an early age, Claus showed a strong affinity for drawing. Determined to develop his talent, he walked three kilometres each Sunday to attend drawing lessons at the Academy of Waregem, where he graduated with a gold medal. Despite this success, his father had reservations about an artistic career and sent Emile to work as a baker’s apprentice in Lille, France. Although Claus learned French during his time there, he found little joy in baking. He later held various jobs, including positions with the Belgian Railways and in the flax trade.

In 1869, thanks to the intervention of the composer Peter Benoit—a family acquaintance—Claus was finally permitted to study at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. There, he trained under landscape painter Jacob Jacobs and quickly attracted the attention of the local bourgeoisie.

Claus completed Cock Fight in Flanders in 1882, a realistic portrayal of the dignitaries of Waregem gathered around a small arena. One of the depicted dignitaries was notary Eduard Dufaux, whose niece, Charlotte Dufaux, would become Emile’s wife in 1886.

In 1883, Claus moved to the idyllic cottage Zonneschijn (“Sunshine”) in Astene, near Deinze, where he would remain until his death. The surrounding natural beauty and the ever-changing light along the Lys River greatly inspired his work. It was here that he developed his signature style—luminism—characterised by a radiant, sunlit palette influenced by French Impressionism, particularly the works of Claude Monet.

Claus soon rose to prominence, befriending leading intellectuals and artists such as sculptor Auguste Rodin, writer Émile Zola, and Belgian authors Cyriel Buysse, Emile Verhaeren, and Maurice Maeterlinck. His paintings were exhibited internationally, and important institutions, including the Antwerp Museum of Fine Arts and the Belgian royal family, acquired his works.

Among Claus’s most celebrated paintings is The Picnic (1887), a scene showing a farming family observing the leisure activities of the urban bourgeoisie across the river. His artistic evolution is notably marked by works like The Beet Harvest (1890) and The Ice Birds (1891). The former, a monumental depiction of farmers laboring in a frozen field, now resides in the Museum of Deinze and the Lys Region, donated by Claus’s widow on the condition a museum would be built to house it. The Ice Birds, inspired by a novella by Léonce Ducatillon, captures children playing on a frozen landscape and is held by the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent.

Claus played a pivotal role in the development of Belgian luminism and in 1904 founded the artist group Vie et Lumière(“Life and Light”). He became affectionately known as the “sun painter” and the “painter of the Lys.” His Cows Crossing the Lys (1899), bathed in golden light and shimmering reflections, is housed in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels.

The First World War forced Claus into exile in London, where he painted the Reflections on the Thames series—works strongly aligned with the impressionist tradition. Upon his return in 1918, he found that his fame had diminished amid the rise of Expressionism. However, a major retrospective of his work in 1921 in Brussels—particularly his London pieces—was warmly received.

Throughout his life, Claus mentored several artists, including Jenny Montigny, with whom he had a long-standing romantic relationship despite their age difference. Another notable student was Anna De Weert, who, along with her husband Maurice, spent summers with Claus in Astene during the 1890s.

On 14 June 1924, Emile Claus passed away in Astene. The day before his death, he completed a pastel of a bouquet of flowers sent by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. His final words were, poignantly, “Bloemen, bloemen, bloemen…” (“Flowers, flowers, flowers”). He was buried in his garden, and today a street in Brussels bears his name.

1911: Member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium

1919: Commander of the Order of Leopold

Emile Claus remains a towering figure in Belgian art history, a pioneer of luminism whose legacy endures in museums, scholarly studies, and the golden light of the Lys he so masterfully captured.