Identity:
Theodor Verstraete was a landscape painter and etcher.
Life:
He was one of the early members of Les XX, the Belgian exhibition group run by Octave Maus and Edmond Picard (1836-1924), co-founder of the Belgian periodical L'Art moderne. However Verstraete's artistic conservatism was not to the taste of the more radical artists in the group and by 1887 he was encouraged to leave.
Bibliography:
Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, Paris, 1956-61; Block, J., 'Les XX,' Grove Dictionary of Art Online, http://www.groveart.com (accessed September 2004); Weisberg, G. P., 'The Drawings of Theodore Verstraete: From Naturalism to Symbolism,' Master Drawings vol. 31, Summer 1993, pp. 128-45.