Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp)
His father (originally from Holland) was a master glass painter. At the age of six, he was already a student at the Academy of Dordrecht. Later, he was a student of Polydore Beaufaux and Jozef Van Lerius at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp). In 1871, he exhibited in Ghent and travelled with Jan Van Beers to France and England, where they attempted to sell their works, but barely made enough to get back home. His anti-clerical painting, "Birds of Prey" (or "God is Dead", in Dutch), created a scandal in 1876.