Belgian painter. Having a natural gift for drawing, he studied at the Academy of Bruges with Paul De Cock [1724-1801] and obtained a first prize in 1786. He left for Paris to study with Joseph-Benoît Suvée. During the Revolution he returned to Bruges in 1792 where he became a member of the local Jacobin Club and played a political role during the last days of the first French occupation. He returned to Paris and received a second Prize of Rome in 1800. He stayed in Rome from 1807 to 1813 and became there the official painter at the court of Eugène de Beauharnais, the viceroy of Italy. After another stay in Paris (1813-15) he settled in Bruges where he was named director of the Academy of Painting. He was also the court painter at the court of William I. From his oeuvre only a few paintings - mainly portraits - and a few hundred studies survived. //