Eugeen Van Mieghem

In recent years, the work of the Antwerp harbour artist Eugeen Van Mieghem is being rediscovered through expositions in e.g. Barcelona, London, New York, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. This is particularly due to the author and curator of the Eugeen Van Mieghem Museum in Antwerp, Erwin Joos, who is studying the oeuvre since 1982. This is his first book describing the largest Van Mieghem collection in the world which is located in the Municipal Print Room of the City of Antwerp counting no less than 610 works of the artist. Van Mieghem grows up in the centre of the old Antwerp harbour. In 1892, when attending the Antwerp Academy, he sees works of e.g. Van Gogh, Seurat and de Toulouse-Lautrec. In 1896, he is dismissed from the Academy and works here and there in the harbour. In 1901, he is very successful at "La Libre Esthetique". Soon after that, he marries Augustine Pautre. Around 1900, he paints an impressive series about the Jewish emigrants who leave for the New World with the Red Star Line. At the end of that year, Augustine falls ill and Van Mieghem represents her when she is dying in an impressive series of drawings and pastels. In 1912 his first individual exposition is being organised, but the burgeoning international interest is suddenly broken off by the World War I. In 1920, Van Mieghem is appointed professor at the Antwerp Academy, and until his death, he continues his artistic activities in the context of the Antwerp harbour and its population. As no other he draws and paints the life of the man in the street, living and working in a world harbour.