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Eugène Laermans | |
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 Eugène Laermans in his studio | |
| Born | Eugène Laermans (1864-10-22)22 October 1864 Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Belgium |
| Died | 2 February 1940(1940-02-02) (aged 75) Brussels, Belgium |
| Occupation | Painter |
Eugène Jules Joseph Baron Laermans (22 October 1864 – 22 February 1940) was a Belgian painter.
He was born inMolenbeek-Saint-Jean. At the age of eleven, he contractedmeningitis, which left him deaf and nearly mute (although some sources say he was born deaf). This concentrated his attention on his sense of sight, and led to his decision to become a painter. He enrolled at theAcadémie Royale des Beaux-Arts in 1887,[1] where he studied withJean-François Portaels and was a great admirer of the paintings ofFélicien Rops. The writings ofCharles Baudelaire were also an influence, so Laermans joined theDecadent movement in 1890 and created illustrations for Baudelaire's bookLes Fleurs du mal. By 1893, his work resembled that ofBruegel rather than the decadents, and he had settled on his signature theme, portrayals of downtrodden laborers and poor peasants which some critics saw as "disturbing caricatures". In 1894, he began to exhibit at the Salons ofLa Libre Esthétique.[1] Two years later, he illustratedLa Nouvelle Carthage, a novel byGeorges Eekhoud, and was inspired by the book to create atriptych of paintings, "Landverhuisers" (Emigrants), that he considered his masterpiece.
In 1922, he became a member of theRoyal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. Two years later, his eyesight began to fail as well and he stopped painting,[1] declaring "I am no longer Laermans". In 1927, the year his mother died, KingAlbert made him a baron. He became totally blind, faded into reclusive obscurity and died thirteen years later, in Brussels and was buried in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean.
InWemmel, there is a wall called the "Laermansmuur". Once, as a student, when he was home on vacation, Laersman saved a drowning man there and the wall was later named after him. It is a low, whitewashed wall of a style that appears in many of his paintings.
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