Piet Verhaert

They were well known for their mischievous and eccentric behaviour, which included walking around Antwerp dressed in historic costumes.

The co-founders included Willem Linnig the Elder, Willem Linnig the Younger, Léon Abry, Constant Cap, Florent Crabeels, Edgard Farasyn, Jean Pierre François Lamorinière, Egide François Leemans, Joseph Van Luppen, Isidoor Meyers, Jean Baptiste Pierre Michiels, Karel Ooms, Max Rooses, Hendrik Frans Schaefels, Lucas Victor Schaefels, Jan Stobbaerts, Frans Van Kuyck, A.-J.

[5] He was a member of Les XX ("The Twenty"), an association founded on 28 October 1883 in Brussels by artists who opposed the conservative selection policies of the official academic Salons.

[6] The members of "De XIII" included Léon Abry, Emile Claus (who was still living in Antwerp at the time), Edouard de Jans, Henri De Smeth, Edgard Farasyn, Maurice Hagemans, Frans Hens Evert Larock, Romain Looymans, Charles Mertens, Henry Luyten, Henry Rul, Leo Van Aken, Louis van Engelen and Theodoor Verstraete.

[2] When Pieter Van Havermaet died on 8 May 1897, Verhaert succeeded him as a teacher at the Antwerp Academy in the subjects of 'Drawing of the figure after life and after antiques' and 'Shadowed drawing after plaster, bust, etc'.

[2] Verhaert died on 4 August 1908 in Oostduinkerke in tragic circumstances after a heated argument with a neighbour over a boundary marker.

He painted initially predominantly genre scenes of the 17th and 18th centuries in a precise style and palette reminiscent of the Antwerp painter Henri de Braekeleer.

This was part of a decoration project under the direction of Albrecht de Vriendt for which four other artists also painted a fresco.