The Belgian painter Emile Claus was already enthusiastic about painting as a child. Every Sunday, he walked three kilometers to a neighboring village to attend a drawing school. Although he left this school with high honors, his father was not enthusiastic about the idea of an artist's career for his son and instead sent him to the French city of Lille so that he could begin training as a baker. However, the urge to paint did not leave young Emile Claus and he decided to send a letter asking for help to the well-known composer Peter Benoit, who was a family friend. With some effort, Benoit managed to convince his father to let Claus study at the Academy of Arts in Antwerp. At the age of 33, Claus moved to a cottage called "Zonneschijn" ("Sunshine") in East Flanders, which he lived in for the rest of his life. From his study he had a beautiful view over the river Leie (Lys). The light conditions of his home inspired him in many of his works.
Claus quickly achieved success as a painter and came into contact with other artists. His friends included Auguste Rodin, Émile Zola, and Maurice Maeterlinck, who later won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Claus often traveled around the world to organize exhibitions of his work. Tragedy, which temporarily interrupted his international success, finally came in the form of the First World War. Claus fled to London and found a house on the banks of the Thames. At the end of the war, he returned to Belgium.
The paintings of Emile Claus show a variety of motifs. In his early creative period, he mainly created realistic-looking portraits. Later he was influenced by the French Impressionists such as Claude Monet and slowly moved away from realism to his own personal version of Impressionism. This style, of which Claus is considered a pioneer, is today called Luminism. Significant paintings that date from the formative period of this Luminism are "The Beet Harvest" and "The Kingfishers". Since 2007, these two paintings are on the list of Flemish cultural heritage. "The Beet Harvest" is a painting of gigantic proportions, showing farmers hoeing sugar beets from a frozen field. Claus never sold the painting during his lifetime, and after his death his widow gave it into the possession of the town of Deinze - on the condition that a separate museum would be built to display it.
Claus died in 1924 at the age of 64. His last words are said to have been, "Flowers, flowers, flowers ...". He was buried in his own garden.
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.jpg "The Lily Banks by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "By the Riverside by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Route to School by Emile Claus")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1440771).jpg "The River Lys at Astene by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Sunny Day by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "End of August by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Beet Harvest by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Fog on the Lys by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Gleaners by Emile Claus")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1661505).jpg "Sunshine by Emile Claus")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1661346).jpg "The Skaters, c.1891 by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Across the Canal by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Cock Fight in Flanders by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "March Sunshine, Leicester Square by Emile Claus")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1661463).jpg "The Skaters by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Gathering Corn by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Waterloo Bridge - A Rainy Day, c1917 by Emile Claus")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-46463).jpg "A Young Girl from Zeeland by Emile Claus")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1661572).jpg "Fog on the River Lys by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Azaleas, Kew Gardens by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "In Tow on the Thames in the Fog by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Tree in the Sun by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Woman by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Duck Girl by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The rust of flax (engraving by Emile Claus, to illustrate the story La Belgique, by Camille Lemonnier) by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Sunny Lane by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Gate by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Ampelio, Old Fisherman of Bordighera by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Garden of Ooidonk by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Old Gardener by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Portrait of Cyriel Buysse by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Sunny Day by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Portrait of the artist, Anne de Weert by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Cows in the Pasture by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Canal in Zeeland by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Village Pond, Upton Grey, c1914 by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Arranged Shore by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Fence by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "La Lys, c. 1902 by Emile Claus")
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_1904_Sun_156_X_201_m_Br_-_(MeisterDrucke-970783).jpg "La collolte du linen by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Portrait of Mrs. Claus in her wedding dress by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "A Wooded Hillside, Upton Grey by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Ray of Sunlight or, Zonneschijn, April 1899 by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "A Corner of My Garden, 1901 by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "October Morning on the River Lys by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Young Woman Arranging Flowers by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Flax Harvesting by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Woman by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Asters by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Waterloo Bridge, Sun and Rain by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Sunset by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Daughter of the Gardener by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "A Meeting on the Bridge by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Unknown Image by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Farm by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Landscape on the Lys, One Morning in May by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Waterloo Bridge and Hungerford Bridge by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Waterloo Bridge in the Sun by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Market in Front of the Theater in Antwerp by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Rough Weather, c1917 by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Waterloo Bridge by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Picking Blossoms by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Self-portrait by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Chestnut Tree in the Evening Sun by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "The Market in Front of the Theater in Antwerp by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Flax Weeding in Flanders by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Gathering Corn by Emile Claus")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1511845).jpg "The Market in Front of the Theatre in Antwerp by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Young Farmers")
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.jpg "Summer by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Flaxweeding in Flanders by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Farm in Zud-Beveland by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Summer by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Skaters by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Haystacks in the Snow by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Sunset over Waterloo Bridge by Emile Claus")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Girl in Pink by Emile Claus")
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