Henri Houben was born in Antwerp in 1858, the son of a violin master at the Antwerp School of Music. The young Henri was taught violin from an early age but by his teens was showing great promise as an artist. In 1877 he enrolled at the Antwerp Academy where he became a pupil of the painter Karel Verlat. Such were his talents that he won the First Prize for painting and was invited by Verlat to assist him in the painting of an enormous panorama depicting scenes from the Battle of Waterloo. After spending some time in Holland he returned to Belgium and commenced his highly successful career as a painter of landscapes, portraits, and figure pieces. In 1885, he himself was appointed painting master at the Antwerp Academy, a position he held until shortly before his death in 1931.
Works by Henri Houben can be seen in Holland at the museums of Zeeland and Katwijk, and in Belgium in the museum of Verviers.
Lit; E. Benezit
Arto
P. Piron
