Meerts later moved to Brussels, where he attended the private art studio of Jean-François Portaels, a prominent painter of genre scenes, biblical stories, landscapes, portraits and Orientalist subjects and the founder of the Belgian Orientalist school.

[3] Meerts was commissioned by the Belgian government to travel to Spain and Italy to copy the works of the great masters.

[2] He also received a commission from the city council of Louvain to copy works of Dirck Bouts for the Leuven Town Hall.

The first one was L'Union des Arts that existed from 1876 to 1885 and organised group exhibitions of works of visual artists.

Members of this association included Louis Baretta, Marie De Bièvre, Charles Defreyn, Jules Dujardin, Joseph Flameng, Ernest Hoerickx, Louis Ludwig, Léon Massaux, Joseph Middeleer, René Ovyn, Emile Rimbout, Pieter Stobbaerts, Flori Van Acker and H. Van der Taelen.

Later others joined including Theodoor Verstraete, Emile Claus, Adrien-Joseph Heymans, Gustave Vanaise, Alfred Verhaeren, Victor Gilsoul, Eugène Laermans, August De Bats, Henri Ottevaere and Emile Van Doren.