Emile BERCHMANS (1867-1947) ✿

Émile Berchmans (Liege, 1867 - Brussels,1947) was a Belgian painter and illustrator, son of the painter Émile-Édouard Berchmans, brother of the sculptor Oscar Berchmans.

Automne, 1899

 

Trained in his father's atelier and at the Liège Academy of Fine Arts where he was a pupil of Adrien de Witte, Émile Berchmans developed most of his career in Liège. With Armand Rassenfosse and Auguste Donnay he is one of the main poster creators of the August Bernard printing house in Liège, the collaboration between the three Belgian artists and the French typographer is the basis of a cutting-edge graphic production in the art of posters in Europe at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

Jeune fille avec son ours en peluche, 1915

In 1904 Émile Berchmans was appointed professor of theoretical composition and sketches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Liège and became professor of painting and decorative arts from 1922 and became director of the Academy from 1930 to 1934. In 1892 he was the first president of the Royal Football Club de Liège.