Born in Ixelles in 1883, Claes-Thobois studied at the Academy of Brussels under Constant Montald and Herman Richir. His career spanned an age of great change in the art world and at various times Albert Claes-Thobois worked in the manner of the Impressionists, Cubists, Fauvists and even in a style similar to that of the modern Russian painters. His early Impressionist work consisted mostly of landscape and still-life pieces but his Cubist period, after 1920, contained more hard-edged genre pieces. In the early 1920’s he illustrated a number of books and literary magazines including Verhaeren’s ‘Expose avec Le Centaure’ and the official publications of the Cercle Artistique et Litteraire de Bruxelles.
Albert Claes-Thobois died in the town of Schaerbeek in 1945 but his paintings can be seen today as part of the National Collection of Belgium and the Museum of Modern Art in Brussels.
Lit; Arto
P. Piron
