(b Antwerp, 13 Jan 1841; d Antwerp, 5 Jan 1915). Belgian painter. He enrolled at the age of 15 at the Academie in Antwerp where he studied first under Jacob Jacobs (1812–79), then Joseph Van Lerius (1823–76) and finally Nicaise De Keyser. In 1865 he came second in the Grand Prix de Rome, which enabled him to travel for three years at the expense of the Belgian government and study the works of Raphael in Italy. Works from this period include his portrait of Julius II, after Raphael (1865; ex-Mus. A. Mod., Brussels). Motivated by a taste for the exotic probably imparted by Jacobs, who had brought back with him from his wide travels in the Orient and Europe a large number of paintings and drawings, Van der Ouderaa accompanied Albert Cogels (1842–84) to Algiers, Tunis, Oran and Spain. On his return to Belgium in 1869 he devoted himself to history painting. He produced romantic fantasies in the manner of Henri Leys and De Keyser and gradually turned to the large, dramatic compositions, usually connected with the history of his native Antwerp, that established his reputation, for example Tanchelin’s Sermon (1870; untraced) and the Last Resort (1885; Brussels, Mus. A. Mod.). In 1890 he completed a large and very colourful academic triptych, Jean Berchmans Lying in State (Antwerp Cathedral).