Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp)
In 1853, he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp), where he studied under Jacob Jacobs, later attending the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, but he always considered himself to be essentially self-taught. During a stay in Paris from 1855 to 1858, he was strongly influenced by the Barbizon School. By the time of the Brussels Salon in 1860, he was turning toward impressionism.