Joseph Coosemans

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Joseph Théodore Coosemans (March 19, 1828 – September 24, 1904) was a Belgian landscape painter from Brussels. After his father died when he was a baby and his mother died a year later, he was raised by an aunt. He studied at a Jesuit college, then worked jobs as a notary clerk and for city governments, which brought him to painting. Influenced by Théodore Fourmois, he decided to specialize in landscapes and was largely self-taught; he held his first exhibition in 1863.

In 1868 he helped found the Société Libre des Beaux-Arts, a group that started as a small workshop and became a free academy. After 1872 he painted full time and became one of the first members of the School van Tervuren. He travelled to Normandy with Alfred Verwée and Louis Dubois and spent time at Barbizon, where he painted in the Barbizon style. His work gradually shifted from Fourmois’s influence to a simpler approach similar to Hippolyte Boulenger, his patron at Tervuren.

In 1887 Coosemans was named Professor of landscape painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. In 1893 he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that paralyzed his right hand. He learned to paint with his left hand, though his later works had a more sketchy feel. He remained at the Academy until his death in 1904, and was succeeded by Franz Courtens.

A street in Schaerbeek is named after him. In 2004, the centenary of his death, the municipality honored him with a major exhibition of his work, including pieces by his son Frits and a bust by Léon Mignon.