Théophile "Théo" van Rysselberghe (23 November 1862 – 13 December 1926) was a Belgian neo-impressionist painter, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the twentieth century. Biography Early years Born in Ghent to a French-speaking bourgeois family, he studied first at the Academy of Ghent under Theo Canneel and from 1879 at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels under the directorship of Jean-François Portaels. The North African paintings of Portaels had started an orientalist fashion in Belgium. Their impact would strongly influence the young Théo van Rysselberghe. Between 1882 and 1888 he made three trips to Morocco, staying there in total a year and a half. Age only eighteen, he had already participated at the Salon of Ghent, showing two portraits. Soon afterwards followed his Self-portrait with pipe (1880), painted in somber colours in the Belgian realistic tradition of the times. His Child in an open spot of the forest (1880) departs from this style and he makes his first steps towards impressionism. Soon he would develop his own realistic style, akin to impressionism. In 1881 he exhibited for the first time at the Salon in Brussels. First trip to Morocco The next year he travelled (following in the footsteps of Jean-François Portaels) extensively in Spain and Morocco together with his friend Frantz Charlet and the Asturian painter Darío de Regoyos. He especially admired the 'old masters' in the Museo del Prado. In Seville they met Constantin Meunier, who was copying Pedro Campaña's Descent from the Cross. From this Spanish trip stem the following portraits : Spanish woman (1881) and Sevillan woman (1882), already completely different in style. When he set foot in Tanger at the end of October 1882, a whole new world opened up for him: so close to Europe and yet completely different. He would stay there for four months, drawing and painting the picturesque scenes on the street, the kasbah and in the souk: Arabian street cobbler (1882), Arabian boy (1882), Resting guard (1883) Back in Belgium, he showed about 30 works of his trip at the "Cercle Artistique et Littéraire" in Ghent. It was an instant success, especially The kief smokers, The orange seller and a seascape The strait (setting sun), Tanger (1882). In April 1883 he exhibited these scenes of everyday Mediterranean life at the salon L'Essor, in Brussels, before an enthusiast public. It was also