 Although he concentrated on his art only in the last 30 years of his life, he was already well known in France and Belgium – and beyond – for his high profile in the clothing industry – and for his civic and charitable activities, which he began in the 1890s, when he was still in his 20s.He authored a series of small books on civic and health issues and organized a 1902 conference in Lille on pediatric hygiene, which was attended by his father's brother, Modeste, who ran the "Maison Dewachter" store in that city.He served as the president of an organization in the South of France that worked in the interests of the suffering population of Belgium – and refugees from that country – during the Great War.