Frans Smissaert
Dutch, 1862-1944
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Jr. Frans Alexander Evert Lodewijk Smissaert was a Dutch painter.
Smissaert was a descendant of the noble family of Smissaert and a son of recipient Mr. Marinus Paulus Smissaert (1825-1900) and Mrs. Elisabeth Françoise Sophia van Rappard (1826-1904), descendant of the Van Rappard family. He grew up in The Hague and was fascinated by the Dutch landscape. His paintings often have the dunes and the polder landscape as subjects. In 1898 he married Jkvr Wilhelmina Frederika Martini Buys (1871-1953), descendant of the Martini family; this marriage remained childless.
Smissaert already had drawing lessons from Frid at the age of 12. Becker only started painting when he was thirty-eight years old. From 1900-1902 he attended the Hague Academy where he was taught by Frits Jansen . Later he was taught by Willem Roelofs for five years, when he lived in Brussels. He also had regular contact with Willem van Konijnenburg .
Smissaert moved often, he worked a lot between 1887 and 1898 in The Hague and Utrecht. From 1898 he lived with his wife in Voorburg until 1903. Between 1903 and 1913 he was often in Paris where he came into contact with Eugène Burnand who encouraged him to paint religious subjects. The municipality of Laren has a painting he made of the cemetery. In 1914 he moved to Laren, where the Larense School was well known, and there he met artists such as Albert Neuhuys and Anton Mauve. His studio was at 45 Torenlaan in villa 'Le Grand Chaumière'.