Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert

[1] He studied from age 17 at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 1890 and obtained first prize for singing in 1890.

He then joined the Opéra de Lille, but an accident with his voice ended his singing career.

He moved to Paris, where he began working as a journalist, writer and art critic and changed his surname to Fierens-Gevaert.

[2] From 1893 he wrote articles for various magazines, including the Journal des Débats.

In 1902 he returned to Belgium to teach at the University of Liège courses in aesthetics, philosophy of art, art history of the Renaissance and the Modern Era and, from 1906, the history of music.