When he was thirteen, his father moved the family to France to take a job as a spinner in the industrial town of Roubaix.

Four years later, he was a candidate for the Prix de Rome, but it was discovered that he was still a Belgian citizen, so he returned to Mouscron, took temporary lodgings and applied for the Prix de Rome (Belgium) from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp).

[1] He was awarded the prize in 1879 and received a gold medal for his painting The Aduatuci Sold as Slaves.

[2] Cogghe spent the next five years travelling extensively throughout Spain and Italy, with visits to Algeria and Tunisia, painting prolifically all the way.

He specialized in portraits, but also painted scenes from the daily life of Roubaix and the surrounding region.