Marie-Elisabeth Belpaire

Marie-Elisabeth Belpaire (31 January 1853 – 9 June 1948) was a Belgian writer and activist. She was known as the "mother of the Flemish Movement".

Life The daughter of Alphonse Belpaire and Betsy Teichmann, she was born in Antwerp and grew up in the home of her maternal grandfather Jan Teichmann, who served as governor of Antwerp province. Taught by private teachers, she learned several languages and read Romantic literature written in French, German and English but soon became interested in Flemish literature.

Belpaire published a number of essays, including studies on Ludwig van Beethoven and Dickens. She supported a Christian ideal of art, where art brings together truth and beauty, and so did not agree with more modern movements in literature. She published a three volume history of her relatives De families Teichmann en Belpaire (1925–34) and her own memoir Gestalten in 't verleden [Figures in the past] (1947).

She translated a number of literary works by Scandinavian authors into Dutch, including four by Johannes Jørgensen, one by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and some fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen.

She died in Antwerp at the age of 95.