Eugene Remy Maes was born in Belgium as Theo van Sluys in 1849 in the village of Puurs near Bornem. He trained at the Brussels Academy of Fine Art. The artist produced work under the pseudonym Eugene Remy Maes.

Maes’s work was popular during his lifetime and made into various types of mechanical reproductions. He was known for his sensitive painting of animal fur and their faces.

Maes died in Kontich, Belgium in 1931.