Rysselberghe, Théo van

Rysselberghe, Théo van (b Ghent, 23 Nov. 1862; d Saint-Clair, Normandy, 13 Dec. 1926). Belgian painter, designer, and sculptor. In 1883 he became a founder member of the avant-garde group Les Vingt; it encouraged an interest in innovative art largely through contact with France, and van Rysselberghe, who met Seurat in Paris, became the leading Belgian exponent of Neo-Impressionism. He moved to Paris in 1898 and became friendly with the Symbolist circle of writers and artists; his painting A Reading (1903, Mus. voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent) shows several leading literary figures including André Gide and Maurice Maeterlinck. In 1910 he settled in Provence, where he abandoned Neo-Impressionism for a broader style of painting. His work is well represented in the Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller at Otterlo. Apart from paintings, his output included a variety of design work, including furniture, jewellery, and stained glass, much of it for Siegfried Bing's Paris gallery L'Art Nouveau, the establishment that gave the Art Nouveau style its name. Late in his career he also took up portrait sculpture. His brother Octave van Rysselberghe (1855–1929) was one of Belgium's leading Art Nouveau architects.