Eugène Laermans

Eugène Jules Joseph Baron Laermans (22 October 1864 – 22 February 1940) was a Belgian painter.

He enrolled at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in 1887,[1] where he studied with Jean-François Portaels and was a great admirer of the paintings of Félicien Rops.

By 1893, his work resembled that of Bruegel rather than the decadents, and he had settled on his signature theme, portrayals of downtrodden laborers and poor peasants which some critics saw as "disturbing caricatures".

[1] Two years later, he illustrated La Nouvelle Carthage, a novel by Georges Eekhoud, and was inspired by the book to create a triptych of paintings, "Landverhuisers" (Emigrants), that he considered his masterpiece.

He became totally blind, faded into reclusive obscurity and died thirteen years later, in Brussels and was buried in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean.