Franz Meerts

Franz Meerts or Frans Meerts (Ghent, 1836 – Brussels, May 1896) was a Belgian painter and aquarellist known for his interior scenes, genre scenes, still lifes and landscapes. He was also active as an author, publisher and copyist.

Life Franz Meerts was born in Ghent. He studied in his home town at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent. Meerts later moved to Brussels, where he attended the private art studio of Jean-François Portaels, a prominent painter of genre scenes, biblical stories, landscapes, portraits and Orientalist subjects and the founder of the Belgian Orientalist school. Portaels trained in his private art studio the next generation of Belgian painters.

Meerts was commissioned by the Belgian government to travel to Spain and Italy to copy the works of the great masters. On the occasion of these trips, he studied the technique of the fresco. He spent the last years of his life restoring the murals of St. Peter's Church in Anderlecht (Brussels).

For more than twenty years, Meerts was the director of the Art Academy of Soignies. He was a co-author of "La Belgique illustrée", an illustrated history and overview of Belgium.

Franz Meerts died in May 1896 in Brussels.

Work Franz Meerts is known for his interior scenes, genre scenes, still lifes and landscapes.

His genre scenes often depicted Catholic clergy and monks and notaries and lawyers in their offices. These works are characterised by their humorous or sentimental touch and their pleasant colors.

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