Franz Meerts

The wine tasting

Franz Meerts (also Frans Meerts, * 1836 in Ghent ; † May 1896 in Brussels ) was a Belgian genre and still life painter and watercolorist.

Franz Meerts studied at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent. He later moved to Brussels, where he attended the private art studio of Jean-François Portaels ,

Meerts was commissioned by the Belgian government to travel to Spain and Italy to copy the works of the great masters. On the occasion of these trips he studied the technique of frescoes.

Meerts was a co-founder of two artists' associations in Brussels. The first was "L'Union des Arts", which existed from 1876 to 1885 and organized group exhibitions. Three such exhibitions took place in Meerts' studio.

Members of this association were Louis Baretta, Marie de Bièvre, Charles Defreyn, Jules Dujardin, Joseph Flameng, Ernest Hoerickx, Louis Ludwig, Leon Massaux, Joseph Middeleer, René Ovyn, Emile Rimbout, Pieter Stobbaerts, Flori van Acker and H. Van der Taelen .

Franz Meerts then founded a new association of young artists, which in 1885 was named "Voorwaarts". Co-founder was Louis Baretta. The motto was: "Hooger is ons doel" (higher is our goal). Its members included Ernest Hoerickx, Leon Massaux, Emile Rimbout, Jan Stobbaerts , Pieter Stobbaerts, Eugène Surinx, Flori van Acker and Camille Wauters. Theodoor Verstraete, Emile Claus , Adrien-Joseph Heymans, Gustave Vanaise , Alfred Verhaeren, Victor Gilsoul, Eugène Laermans, August De Bats, Henri Ottevaere and Emile Van Doren later joined. The first “Voorwaarts” salon took place in 1885 in the Ijzerenkruistraat in the center of Brussels. In 1888 “Voorwaarts” exhibited in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels. The association remained active until 1893.

Franz Meerts was commissioned by the Leuven City Council to copy works by Dierick Bouts for the Leuven City Hall . He completed the work in 1899-1890. In the last years of his life he restored the murals in St. Peter's Church in Anderlecht .

Meerts was the director of the Soignies Art Academy for more than twenty years . He was co-author of “La Belgique illustrée”.

literature

• Meerts, Franz . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 24 : Mandere – Möhl . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1930.

Web links

Commons : Franz Meerts  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Franz Meerts. Biographical data and works in the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)
• Dictionnaire des peintres belges Biography (digitized version )