Edward Woutermaertens
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Edward Woutermaertens was born in Kortrijk, Belgium on 15 August 1819, a son of Lodewijk Frans, a goldsmith, and Marie Thérèse Seynaeve. His younger brother Constant also became a painter. He started to study in 1836 at the Academy of Kortrijk likely under Filip De Witte, a painter of portraits, genre scenes and biblical scenes. Among his fellow pupils were the brothers Hendrik and Edmond de Praetere (Pratere), who became well-known artists.[1] After completing his academic training in 1840, he was a pupil of the animal painter Lodewijk or Louis Robbe for six years.[2]
He married Camilla Dervaux and the couple had 9 children. He started painting dogs but gradually started drawing more inspiration from depicting sheep. He even kept his own flock of sheep, for which he had hired a shepherd. He became successful and had patrons locally, and in France and England. His works were accepted at various leading official salons, such as Kortrijk in 1841, in Bruges in 1846, in Brussels in 1845, 1848, 1852, 1875, 1878 and 1880, in Paris in 1855, 1866 and 1878 and in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1870.[1]
He was the teacher of the Kortrijk painters Vincent De Vos (1829-1875) en Valère Verheust (1841-1881).[3] While he never taught at the Academy of Kortrijk, he was a regular member of the jury deciding on its year-end awards.[1]
