Eeklo's Celebrities
Eeklo saw the birth of quite a few celebrities. Here follow just a few of them.
On 27 August 1790 the portrait painter Jozef Geirnaert was born in Eeklo. In 1830 like Antoon Depoorter, another well known painter from Eeklo, Geirnaert thought it wise, because of his sympathies for the Orange cause, to leave for a while for The Hague. He settled down in Ghent where he eventually died on 21/3/1859.
Serafien De Vliegher is another great Flemish painter. He was born in Eeklo on 7 June 1806. He was a pupil of Jozef Geirnaert. He won a lot of prizes i.a. Brussels (1826), Ghent (1827) and Groningen in the Netherlands in 1828. He then returned to Eeklo in triomph and was feted by the town council and the whole population. He is counted among the founders of the Eeklo Academy (Teekenschool) and taught there for a while. He also taught at the Academy of Aalst (Alost). Like all great artists of his day he spent a lot of time in Paris but most of his works are in Aalst where he died on 14 March 1848.
Jacques Louis Godinau was born in Eeklo on 1 January 1811 the son of a bailiff (writ-server) from Ghent. His mother, Bernardina Francisca Colleman was from Watervliet. From 1822 he took the courses of Jozef Geirnaert at the Academy in Ghent. In 1835 he was awarded the Second Prize of the Painting Salon in Ghent. He then went to Paris where he became a pupil of the well known portraitist Paul Delaroche. His works were exhibited in Ghent (1838), Köln (Cologne) (1839) and Bruges (1840). He specialized in household scenes and portraits. From 1842 until 1870he taught at the Academy of Fine Art in Ghent where he died on 7 April 1873.
The Romantic painter Antoon Depoorter (1812 - 1841) was also born in Eeklo. His uncle taught him the job of cooper. But he went to art classes in Eeklo taught by Serafien De Vliegher and from 1831 to 1833 he was a pupil of Geirnaert in Ghent. He received financial help from Eduard Van Damme, a lifelong friend. In 1830 when Belgium fought the Dutch to gain its independence Depoorter put a portrait of the Dutch king in his workshop. A patriotic crowd came and destroyed everything. In 1833, out of funds, he had to abandon his studies in Ghent and he went to Lille where he became a pupil of Souchon. In 1834 he painted the portrait of Karel Lodewijk Ledeganck, Eeclo's best known poet and writer. He then went to Delaroche in Paris and from there to Rome, where he met with other Flemish painters such as Nicaise De Keyser, Eduard De Vigne and Jean Baptist Maes, the latter two from Ghent. Maes had married an Italian and lived in Rome since 1830. Depoorter staid in Rome with Eduard De Vigne, Felix' brother and with the sculptor Pierre De Vigne. With them he also went to Napels and Capri. He died in Lille in 1841 shortly after his return from Italy.
By far the most famous son of Eeklo is Karel Lodewijk Ledeganck. Let's hope we'll soon be able to bring here a special page about him.
Our sources: we are indebted to Mr. Paul Van de Woestijne for information on Jacques Godinau, Jozef Geirnaert, Antoon Depoorter and Serafien De Vliegher in a very interesting article entitled "Meetjeslandse Schilders in de Memoires of J.B. Lybaert" (Meetjesland Painters in the Memoirs of J.B. Lybaert) and published in the first issue of 2003 of an excellent quarterly publication called "Heemkundige bijdragen uit het Meetjesland" (Regional Contributions from the Meetjesland).
