Henry Luyten

Henry Luyten (Hendrik Luyten; 21 May 1859 in Roermond – 21 January 1945 in Brasschaat) was a Dutch-born Belgian painter.

Hendrik Luyten was born in Roermond, Netherlands as the son of Francis Hubert Luyten (1833-1908) and Johanna Hendrica de Bee (1829-1904). He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium from 1878. In 1883 he attended classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris with Alexander Cabanet. After 10 months he returned to Antwerp. In 1884 Henry became a member of the art circle "Als ik kan" ("If I can") and participated in a number of expositions. His main friends in the art circle were Henry van de Velde, Jan-Willem Rosier and Leon Brunin. From 1886 (Gold Medal from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam) he became friends with Dutch artists Matthijs Maris, Jacob Maris, Hendrik-Willem Mesdag, Alma Tadema and the Italian painter Giovanni Segantini. Henry resided during 1886 and 1887 in the Borinage, a coalmining area in the south of Belgium where the working and living conditions of the miners were appaling. Here he witnessed the great strike and its bloody suppression. In response, he painted the triptych "The Strike" on which he worked until 1893. The painting (international title: "Struggle for Life") measures 3 to 5 meters. The painting on the right-hand panel (3 by 2 ½ meters) is called "After the uprising" and the left-hand panel is called "Misery".

On 17 April 1890 Henry married Joanna Francisca Brees (1854-1916). A son named Henry Francis was born on 28 November 1892 from this marriage. The family settled for some time in Merksem. In 1896 Luyten became a naturalized Belgian. He then established himself as an artist in Brasschaat, near Antwerp. In his house, an old farmhouse surrounded by a large garden, he opened a private school of painting around 1900, the Institut des Beaux Arts Henry Luyten. Here he taught pupils from across Europe and the United States and let them paint from nature. His international students included Mara Corradini (Italy), Flora Zenker (Germany), Mary Poulle (USA), Pierre Blanc (Luxembourg), Maria Jansen (Netherlands), Mathilde Bernard (Belgium) and Hedwich Behnisch (Breslau). Hedwich Behnisch would become his second wife in 1917 after the death of his first wife Joanna. Hedwich was born in 1873 in Luszkowa (Hohenangern) in the former German province of Posen. Her family owned large estates and castles in Silesia, but lost everything after World War II.

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