(b Brussels, 13 June 1884; d Dilbeek, 9 Jan 1953). Belgian painter and printmaker. He was apprenticed to an engraver and lithographer and with these skills entered the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (1897). Soon, however, he transferred to painting and between 1900 and 1906 studied under Guillaume Van Strydonck (1861–1937), Isidore Verheyden and Jean Delville. In 1907 he shared a studio with Rik Wouters and befriended the future Brabant Fauvists, among whom was Auguste Oleffe. He joined the circle known as L’Effort and in 1912 participated in a group exhibition of the Bleus de la G.G.G. (Galerie Georges Giroux in Brussels) with Constant Permeke, Léon Spilliaert, Edgard Tytgat and Wouters. For several years common themes, a bold use of colour and the influence of Cézanne united Brusselmans even more closely with Oleffe, Wouters and Ferdinand Schirren. He had his first one-man show in Antwerp at the Galerie Breckpot in 1921. Three years later he decided to stay in Dilbeek, exhibited at the Expressionist Galerie Le Centaure and became friendly with Louis Thévenet. A founder of the Paruk Clan in 1922 and of art vivant in 1930, from 1931 he joined in the enterprise known as Compagnons de l’Art, which he was to commemorate in a painting of the same name (1949; Brussels, Mus. A. Mod.). His influence was particularly strong on certain artists of the Jeune Peinture Belge group (1945). The desire to simplify volumes and planes, which underlies Brusselmans’s remarkably structured work, and the vital need to make forms stand out from the canvas by thickening contour lines contrasts with the sensitivity and delicacy of the colours—especially his characteristic grey. Among his best-known paintings are In the Garden (1916) and The Garret I (1938; both Brussels, Mus. A. Mod.).

• Brusselmans, Jean
  • Art Contemporain
  • Brabant Fauvism