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Van den Houten, Leon
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Leon Van den Houten was a Belgian artist who was born in 1874,
Van den Houten was enrolled at The Glasgow School of Art during the 1915-16 session as a day student. He lived in Mount-sur Marchienne before coming to Glasgow as one of the almost 250,000 Belgian refugees that came to the UK. Van den Houten, before studying at The Glasgow School of Art also studied at the Académie de Châtelet and the Université du Travail, where he would later go on to teach. He is listed on the Glasgow Belgian refugee register from 1914-1920 along with his wife Jeanne Back Van den Houten and his three children.
Whilst studying at The Glasgow School of Art, Houten also taught drawing classes for ladies in Glasgow.
A Belgian Tryst fundraising event was held January 1915 in the Mackintosh Building whilst Houten attended the school. The event took the form of an exhibition with various shows and activities such as a 'Belgian Market', a 'Chamber of Horrors' and a 'Lightning Artist', in order to raise funds for the Red Cross and The Belgian Relief Fund.
During the interwar period, he formed the course of decorative arts at the Universite du Travail in Charleroi Belgium, delivering drawing classes at the institution where he taught for forty years. Houten was clearly a very influential teacher at the school with some of his pupils such as Léon Adam , Gustave Camus , Alphonse Darville , Georges Debroux , Marcel Delmotte , Joseph Gillain , Marthe Guillain , Ben Genaux and Félix van Immerzeel all establishing themselves as well respected artists. He is also considered a pivotal figure and initiator of the art of the Charleroi region of Belgium.
In 1925, Houten participated in the 'Exposition des Art Decoratifs' in Paris. The exposition, which was created by the French Government in order to highlight the new international style as well as promoting a brighter and more optimistic future after The First World War.
Houten is best known for his impressionist landscape paintings of Belgium, Scotland, France and Luxemborg as well as his still lives and portraits. The artist died in 1944 in Belgium at the age of 70.
Sources
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Van_den_Houten
http://www.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-576-269-C
http://www.tabgalerie.be/tableau-vue-de-namur-van-den-houten-leon_detail_6.html
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