Edward Van Ryswyck

 Edward Van Ryswyck (1871-1931)

Edward van Ryswyck ( Antwerp , 18 May 1871 - Antwerp 11 May 1931) was a Belgian painter from the Romantic School , known for his many still lifes with flowers, fruits and fish. His name is also written as Edward Van Rijswijck.

He was a grandson of the poet Jan Theodoor van Rijswijck and the cousin of the Antwerp mayor Jan Van Rijswijck .

Due to health problems, he had to leave school when he was only fourteen years old. He then studied for a short time with an Antwerp architect. He then enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp , where he was taught by Jan-Willem Rosier (1858-1931) , among others .

At the start of his career, he focused on botanical subjects and studies of animals from the Antwerp Zoo . With his painting "Eagles Fighting a Prey", he received a scholarship and congratulations from King Leopold II at the age of nineteen .

After this he traveled to Paris and became a student at the Académie Julian . He was taught there by the history painters Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921) and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902). He also worked in the studio of a decorative painter, where he focused on copying known paintings from the Louvre . After three years he returned to Belgium.

He also worked in Italy in 1905.

During the First World War he fled to the Netherlands. Here he successfully applied portrait painting.

After the war he returned to Belgium. He first worked in a studio in the Oude Kerkstraat in Antwerp and then in the Van Geeststraat in Borgerhout . He built a successful career with his many paintings of landscapes and still lifes, which testify to a strong technical skill.

He often participated in exhibitions. In 1904 he exhibited at the Triennial Salon in Antwerp and in 1908 at the inauguration of the Stadsfeestzaal in Antwerp. In 1904 he designed the model for the monument to Hendrik Conscience in Blankenberge. In Brasschaat he was a builder and designer of floats.

His portrait was painted by Johannes Cornelius Neervoort.