Rodolphe Wytsman
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Rodolphe Paul Marie Wytsman (born Dendermonde, March 11, 1860 - died Linkebeek, November 2, 1927) was a BelgianImpressionist painter.[1]
He trained at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, he was one of the founding members of Les XX.


Origin
Rodolphe Wytsman was the son of Klemens Wytsman (Dendermonde, 1825–1870), a man of Austrian origin who was notary and ships in his hometown, and Emma-Maria Cockuyt (Ghent, c. 1838). Wytsman married in 1886 Juliëtte Trullemans (Juliëtte Wytsman) (Brussels, 1866 Elsene, 1925), also painter. They lived successively in the 1922 Education Street (c. 1881), Van Dyck Street, 1914 (1884), Neuchâtelstraat, 1917 (1885), Priëelstraat, 6 (1888) and later in the Keyenveldstraat 26, 1939, in Brussels.
Early life
He grew up in a cultured environment: his father was - apart from the care of his notary - a meritorious numismatist, historian, composer and urbanist. Among his friends were the Flemish composers François Auguste Gevaert, Peter Benoit, but also the French literary figure, Victor Hugo.
Wytsman father died prematurely in 1870, when Rodolphe only 9 to 10 years old.
Wytsman's mother shortly thereafter moved to Dendermonde, Ghent, her hometown. In 1873 Rodolphe Wytsman took courses at the Academy in Ghent from Jean Capeinick (1838–1890), a painter who specialized in still lifes and rich, colorful floral arrangements. Capeinick, a true professional, was the teacher who had accompanied young Theo Van Rysselberghe. Wytsman's studies were interrupted by a lucrative job in a yarn shop. After three years, and against the wishes of his mother, he stopped with his eyes deadening and oppressive occupation, and resumed his studies at the Academy. His teachers were then Théodore-Joseph Canneel and Julius De Keghel. Wytsman became friends with Theo Van Rysselberghe, Gustave Vanaise and Armand Heins. With the latter he became a friend for life. As a painter Wytsman opted for the landscape. His early works - this time from the Ghent - were realistic. In the following years he developed gradually into a still more conventional pre-impressionist style. But Wytsman already lived in Brussels, where the pulse of modernist painting was the best feeling.
Brussels
Wytsman mother settled with her family in Brussels, where Rodolphe in the same year continued his studies at the Academy. He studied with Jean Portaels, Joseph Stallaert and Joseph Van Severendonck. Among his fellow students included Eugene Broerman in Brussels, Francois Halkett, Frantz Charlet and again Theo Van Rysselberghe. Also James Ensor and Guillaume Van Strydonck studied at that time. At the Brussels Academy, he came into contact with the artists group "L'Essor". "L'Essor" was founded on March 4, 1876 by some students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, namely L. Cambier, Julien Dillen, Leon Herbo, Henri Permeke, L. Pion, F. Seghers and François Taelemans. Vela others joined Albert Baertsoen, Frantz Charlet, Jean Degreef, Henry De Groux, Jacques Lalang, Jean Delville, James Ensor, Leon Frederic, Frank Leemputten and others. Even before his academy training in 1881, finally closing said Rodolphe Wytsman already exhibited in the Salon of Ghent in 1880 with "The night".
Italian Travel
Financially supported by a friend of his late father, he went in 1882, on an Italian-journey, to Rome and surrounding areas, but the Neapolitan coast, made an unforgettable impression on him. Works dating from that era such as "Fountain in the Villa Borghese in Roma" and "Rocks on Capri". In Italy, he had friendly contacts with other Belgian artists who lived there then: Gustave Vanaise, Jef Lambeaux, Leon Philippet, Eugene Broerman, Alexandre Marcet. In May 1883, Rodolphe Wytsman was back in Belgium; together with Vanaise he exhibited in that year still in the "Cercle Artistique in Ghent. From 1883 on he was to be found annually in Knokke. As developed in the summer, a small but important artists colony where many advanced landscape painters from Ghent and Brussels came down, such as Alfred Verwee, Willy Schlobach, Paul Parmentier, Theo Van Rysselberghe, Omer Coppens, Anna Boch, Félicien Rops, also James Ensor, Willy Finch & Camille Pisarro even came along. Wytsman painted the dunes, the beach, the polders, the Zwin.
Les XX
In 1883, Wytsman was a founding member of "Les XX", the famous avant-garde group in Brussels, inspired by the figure of Octave Maus, and founded by Frantz Charlet, Jean Delvin, Dario Regoyos, Paul Dubois, James Ensor, Willy Finch, Charles Goethals, Fernand Khnopff, Pericles Pantazis, Frans Simons, and Théodore Verstraete. Until 1887, Wytsman sent to work in the annual Salons of Les XX.
The following year, he and Isidore Verheyden resigned from that group and would not exhibit, even if "invited". He resigned without a clear reason , and apparently without hassles, what else is more came binnen "Les XX". In his resignation letter he wrote:
... J'espère que tout en n'etant Vingiste plus, nous conserverons nos bons rapports et le plaisir que j'aurai the vous recevoir souvent à l'atelier ...
In the Salons of Les XX "Wytsman was present with the following titles:
· 1884: "La Ferme du Moulin (Flandre)," "Les Fleurs (West-Flandre)" & "La mare (the dunes Knocke)
· 1885: "Le Moulin de Knocke," "La Neige", "A Melle. Fin d'automne", "A Boitsfort" & "La Prairie '
· 1886: "La Neige", "Pavot et coquelicots. Crepuscule