Frans Van Damme was born in Hamme on 19 July 1858.
[3] He won the Prix de Rome and was awarded gold medals in Tunis, Paris and Saint Petersburg, whose Hermitage Museum owns two of his works.
Van Damme was a virtuoso and his work in keeping with the 19th-century tradition of Impressionist realism.
[3] Within this emerging tradition he was nonetheless able to develop his own style.
His life had a tragic end: his studio in Zeebrugge was destroyed by a bombardment in 1914.