View of Bruges with Belfry Tower

Rommelaere Emile was born in on March 27, 1873 in Bruges, 1961. He was a Belgian painter who belonged to the Bruges School.

He was a student at the Art Academy in Bruges (1884-1891) and at the Art Academy in Antwerp from 1891. Rommelaere studied also at the National Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp under the master teacher and artist De Vriendt Albrecht.

He participated in the Rome Prize in 1895. In 1895 he became a master teacher at the Academy in Bruges. He remained in function until his retirement in 1942. Among his pupils was Leon Dieperinck.

He painted portraits, historical and biblical scenes, genre scenes, townscapes and landscapes.

Rommelaere brushes impressionistic and colourful. Painter portrays town scenes, beguinages, groups of houses, allegorical compositions, in which professional skills and technical cleverness are immediately noticeable. He delivers excellent, poignant work as portrayals of typical figures of old men’s home-dwellers, lace-workers, housewives. As a watercolourist, he also produces noteworthy and good work.

Rommelaere assisted his teacher De Vriendt in the realization of murals in the Gothic Hall of the Bruges Town Hall and continued the project after De Vriendt’s death in 1900 (1895-1901), after which the work was taken over by Juliaan De Vriendt.

Rommelaere had individual exhibitions in the Salle Taets, Ghent and the Galerie San Salvador, Bruges.

He died on November 21 in Westkapelle, Knokke.

Today, his work can be found in private and public collections, including Bruges Groeninge Museum, Bruges Provincial Court “Portrait of Governor J. De Béthune” in Mechelen in Belgium and in Metz, France.