Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp)
He was born in Mouscron. When he was thirteen, his father moved the family to France to take a job as a spinner in the industrial town of Roubaix. He took his first art lessons at the local Academy. In 1876, he entered the École des Beaux-arts, where he studied under Alexandre Cabanel. Four years later, he was a candidate for the Prix de Rome, but it was discovered that he was still a Belgian citizen, so he returned to Mouscron, took temporary lodgings and applied for the Prix de Rome (Belgium) from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp). He was awarded the prize in 1879 and received a gold medal for his painting "The Aduatuci Sold as Slaves".