he would later reject. Wouters achieved high results in the Academy, ranking first in sculpture and second in historical composition. Regardless of his academic success, Wouters burned his works at the end of each year of his apprenticeship. His earliest completed surviving pieces of sculpture are from 1907 and his earliest paintings date from 1908. Edith Hoffman (1956) suggests that in these early works, although proficient in both crafts, Wouters remained "dependant on those masters he admired most", and that it wasn't until 1909 for his sculpting and 1910 for his painting that he became "completely individual". During his education in Brussels Wouters met Hélène Philomène Lionardine Duerinckx, born in Schaerbeek on October 18, 1886. Hélène, known as Nel, would become Wouters' wife and greatest muse. The two were acquainted in 1902 and married three years later, in Amsterdam on April 15, 1905. Career Rik Wouters' The Nymph (an unfinished sculpture created during 1904 and 1905) is considered to be his "breakthrough" piece as it represented his desire to escape the restrictions of the Academy as well as the limits his own talent, although it was never finished nor sold. Following the completion of his studies, Wouters and his wife moved into a house in Watermael. However, Wouters was unable to support himself financially and so moved back in with his father in Mechelen. Again helping his father, Wouters failed to produce anything he deemed as satisfactory. He and his wife only intended to stay with his father for a short period, so he briefly worked for a porcelain manufacturer to make enough money to move to the countryside (in Boitsfort) in order to accommodate Hélène's recently contracted tuberculosis. They did this (in 1907) for clean air upon the advice of a doctor they had seen in the east side of Brussels however it also allowed Wouters an opportunity to paint freely. Initially Wouters primarily made sketches and developed his etching in the evenings. Sculpting began to occupy a larger portion of his focus over the next year and, in 1908, he modelled 12 bronze statues. Here Wouters experimented with light, unmixed colours, painting the cardboard evenly with a palette knife. He achieved three-dimensionality through colour contrasts- shadowing with darker reds, blues or greens- but rarely using drawn contours. Preferring to paint still lifes and interiors, Wouters created a "vibrant atmosphere" through the use of contrast and large strokes. This