Van Rysselberghe went to Haarlem in September 1883 to study the light in the works of Frans Hals. He was fascinated by the way the artist had rendered the light and this facet of painting would remain with him for the rest of his life. It was also in the Netherlands that he first met the American painter William Merritt Chase. <\/p>\n Fantasia Araba, by<\/em> Th\u00e9o Van Rysselberghe<\/em> (1884)<\/em><\/p>\n Having returned from the Netherlands he remained at home for a short while before setting off on his second painting trip to the Moroccan town of Tangier in November 1883 along with Franz Charlet who had accompanied him on his previous trip. He remained in Morocco for twelve months and managed to put together a large number of paintings and sketches. The highlight of which was his large painting (300 x 170cms) entitled Fantasia Araba<\/em>, which he completed in 1884. It can be seen at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.<\/p>\n Even though he was in North Africa Th\u00e9o remained in close contact with Octave Maus discussing the running of Les XX. Les XX was a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, formed in 1883 by the Brussels lawyer, publisher, and entrepreneur Octave Maus.<\/p>\n Les XX poster for their sixth exhibition<\/em> in 1889<\/em><\/p>\n For ten years, Les XX held an annual exhibition of their art; each year twenty other international artists were also invited to participate in their exhibition. Th\u00e9o would suggest names of artists to Maus who he believed should be invited to their first exhibition in 1884. In the first year\u2019s show the foreign invitees included Auguste Rodin, John Singer Sargent, Max Liebermann, Whistler and William Merritt Chase<\/p>\n Abraham Sicsu (Consul de Belgique a Tanger)<\/em> by Th\u00e9o Van Rysselberghe<\/em> (1884)<\/em><\/p>\n His long stay in North Africa ended in October 1884 when he ran out of money and had to return home to Belgium. Once again he had many completed paintings to exhibit, including Fantasia Araba,<\/em> at the second Les XX exhibition in 1885. Another of van Rysselberghe\u2019s paintings exhibited was his portrait of Abraham Sicsu who had entered the service of the Belgian legation in Tangier in 1864 as an interpreter. Many famous painters and members of the Belgian royal family had visited him. He was appointed Belgian consul and officer of the Order of Leopold on 8 April 1889 and finally obtained Belgian naturalisation.<\/p>\n Madame Edmond Picard in Her Box at Theatre de la Monnaie<\/em> by Theo Rysselberghe (1886)<\/em><\/p>\n In the 1886 Les XX exhibition van Rysselberghe saw the works of the Impressionist, Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir. He was so enthralled by what he saw that he decided to experiment with this artistic technique. An example of this is his 1886 painting entitled Madame Edmond Picard in Her Box at Theatre de la Monnaie.<\/em><\/p>\n Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht\u00a0by Th\u00e9o van Ryssdalberghe (1886)<\/em><\/p>\n \u2026 and his Portrait of Madame Oscar Ghysbrecht<\/em> in which he used a palette of bright colours.<\/p>\n Les Dunes du Zwin, Knokke, by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1887)<\/em><\/p>\n \u2026and the impressionist style of van Rysselberghe carried on through many of his landscape and seascape painting including his 1887 work entitled Les Dunes du Zwin, Knokke<\/em>, a municipality of of\u00a0West Flanders\u00a0in\u00a0\u00a0Belgium.<\/p>\n A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat (1886)<\/em><\/p>\n Van Rysselberghe had cultivated close ties with the Parisian art scene, so much so that Octave Maus asked Rysselberghe to go to Paris and search out up-and-coming new talent who would be able to take part in future exhibitions of Les XX. Whilst in Paris van Rysselberghe became aware of Pointilism, a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of colour are applied in patterns to form an image. It was a hallmark of Neo-Impressionist painters. Th\u00e9o first saw it when he visited the eighth impressionism exhibition in 1886 and Georges Seurat\u2019s painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.<\/em> Th\u00e9o and some other Belgian artists brought the pointillism art form back to Belgium but not every art critic was impressed by this new technique. Seurat was invited to exhibit at the 1887 salon of Les XX in Brussels but it received a very unfavourable reception with many art critics labelling it as \u201cincomprehensible gibberish applied to the noble art of painting\u201d.<\/p>\n Anna Boch by\u00a0Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (c. 1889)<\/em><\/p>\n Not to be deterred by the art critics\u2019 vitriolic comments Th\u00e9o decided to change his painting style abandoning realism and became proficient at pointillism. In the summer of 1887, he spent a few weeks in Batignolles, near Paris with Eug\u00e8ne Boch, a brother of Anna Boch, a Belgian painter, art collector, and the only female member of the artistic group, Les XX. His 1889 painting of Anna Boch is a good example of Th\u00e9o\u2019s pointillism style. It was while with Eug\u00e8ne Bloc that he met several painters from the Parisian art scene such as Sisley, Signac, Degas and especially Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He took the opportunity to invite several of them, including Signac, Forain, and Toulouse-Lautrec to the next exhibition of Les XX.<\/p>\n View of Mekn\u00e8s by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1888)<\/em><\/p>\n In December 1887 Th\u00e9o was invited, together with Edmond Picard, to accompany a Belgian economic delegation to Mekn\u00e8s, one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco, located in northern central Morocco and the sixth largest city by population in the kingdom.<\/p>\n Encampment near a Moroccan Village by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe<\/em> (1888)<\/em><\/p>\n Encampment near a Moroccan Village by<\/em> Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1888)<\/em><\/p>\n His third stay in Morocco lasted three months during which time he completed many coloured pencil sketches, made copious notes and took many photos all of which he used to complete paintings. When he had finished these paintings, he stopped completely with this \u201cMoroccan period\u201d in his life. He now turned to portraiture, resulting in a series of remarkable neo-impressionist portraits.<\/p>\n Portrait of Alice S\u00e8the by<\/em> Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe <\/em>(1888)<\/em><\/p>\n The portrait of Alice S\u00e8the was an early one of van Rysselberghe\u2019s divisionist (or pointillist) works which juxtaposes small touches of pure tones on the canvas. Alice stands before us in a beautiful blue and white dress. Behind her are the accoutrements of a luxurious setting. Van Rysselberghe\u2019s mixing of colours no longer takes place on his palette but in the eye of the observer. Th\u00e9o Van Rysselberghe remains one of the few artists who have put this technique in his portraits. This blue and gold portrait, completed in 1888, would become a turning point in his artistic life.<\/p>\n Portrait of Irma S\u00e8the<\/em> by<\/em> Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1894)<\/em><\/p>\n G\u00e9rard S\u00e8the was a wealthy textile merchant from Brussels who belonged to Van Rysselberghe\u2019s circle of friends. Van Rysselberghe portrayed the S\u00e8the daughters, Irma, Maria and Alice on several occasions. The portrait of Irma S\u00e8the depicts her playing the violin. The S\u00e8the family were very musical with Maria playing the harmonium and Irma was apprenticed to the \u201cKing of Violin\u201d Eug\u00e8ne Ysa\u00ffe, a violinist and teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. The Portrait of Irma S\u00e8the epitomises Van Rysselberghe\u2019s pointillism. The satin of Irma\u2019s dress lights up in full pink, comprised of thousands of dots of unmixed colours. The changing light and colour effects create a strong plastic effect over the folds on Irma\u2019s sleeves and skirt. In Irma\u2019s portrait we see her completely engrossed in playing her violin. Our eyes are fixed on her and yet, maybe unnoticed at first, we see that she is not alone as sitting in the room next to her is another woman sitting in a chair with one hand laid on her blue dress. Why was this other woman included in the portrait? Is Irma aware of her presence? Only van Rysselberghe knows the answers. The portrait was exhibited in 1895 at the\u00a0Paris Salon des Ind\u00e9pendants<\/em>, in 1898 at the salon of\u00a0La Libre Esth\u00e9tique<\/em>, and in 1899 at the thirteenth exhibition of the\u00a0Vienna Secession.<\/p>\n Marie Monnom by Fernand Khnopff\u00a0 (1887)<\/em><\/p>\n Fernand Khnopff completed this Portrait of Marie Monnom in 1887. Her father, a publisher of L\u2019Art moderne <\/em>in Brussels, had commissioned the work. We see her in Khnopff\u2019s studio sitting in an armchair and seen from the side. It shares a number of elements with several portraits of women painted by Khnopff such as the golden circle on the wall on the upper left, the gloves that Marie is wearing, the framing which slices off the subject\u2019s feet. She does not hold our gaze and her face, although bathed in light, is expressionless. Nothing of her personality shows through.<\/p>\n Sunset at Ambleteuse by<\/em> Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1899)<\/em><\/p>\n Cap Griz Nez by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1900)<\/em><\/p>\n On September 16th 1889, Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe, a close friend of Khnopff\u2019s, married Marie Monnom and they went on their honeymoon to the south of England and then to Brittany where he made many sketches that he would later turn into finished paintings. In October 1890 their daughter \u00c9lisabeth was born.<\/p>\n \u00c9lisabeth by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe, (1916) <\/em><\/p>\n Madame Theo van Rysselberghe and Her Daughter by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1899)<\/em><\/p>\n \u00c9lisabeth in Straw Hat by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1901)<\/em><\/p>\n Van Rysselberghe\u2019s wife and daughter featured in many of his portraits.<\/p>\n Olive Trees near Nice by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1905)<\/em><\/p>\n As the years passed van Rysselberghe used his pointillist technique less frequently and by 1910, he had completely put aside pointillism. His brushstrokes became longer and he used more often vivid colours and more intense contrasts, or softened hues. He had mastered the application of light and heat in his paintings.<\/p>\n Female Bathers Under the Pines at Cavaliere by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1905)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n He completed his painting entitled Olive Trees near Nice <\/em>in 1905 and the technique he used for this work is similar to one used by Vincent van Gogh with its longer brushstrokes in red and mauve becoming prominent in his 1905 painting, Bathing ladies under the Pine Trees at Cavali\u00e8re<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Vines in Saint Clair by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1912)<\/em><\/p>\n Van Rysselberghe was travelling along the Mediterranean coast with his friend, the French Neo-Impressionist painter, Henri-Edmond Cross, looking for a suitable place to live. Cross lived in Saint-Clair and van Rysselberghe immediately fell in love with this coastal location. Th\u00e9o\u2019s brother Octave, who lived nearby, was an architect and, in 1911, he built a house for his brother. Th\u00e9o now living on the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur slowly extricated himself from the Brussels art scene.<\/p>\n Bathers by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1920)<\/em><\/p>\n The Model\u2019s Siesta by Th\u00e9o van Rysselberghe (1920)<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mydailyartdisplay.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/theo_van_rysselberghe_fantasia_araba_1884.jpg\")
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