Héger, Louise |
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BORN 14 Jul 1839, Brussel - DIED 21 Jul 1933, Brussel: Ixelles BIRTH NAME Héger, Élise Marie Louise Florence GRAVE LOCATION Watermael-Boitsfort, Brussel: Cimetière de Watermael-Boitsfort, Rue du buis 57 |
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Louise Héger was the daughter of Constantin Héger and Zoë Parent. Her mother ran a boarding school that was attended by Emily Brontë and Charlotte Brontë in 1843 and 1844. She attended the family school and the artist Paul Lauters (1806-1875) instructed her. She chose to remain unmarried to be able to pursue her artistic interests. She painted landscapes and she earned a salary by teaching art at the family school. From the 1870s she frequently visited the artists' colonies in Genk and Tervuren. There she met the painter Alphonse Asselbergs and she corresponded extensively with him for many years. She copied works at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium is Brussels when she could not work outdoors. Louise Héger exhibited in Brussels and at the Salon in Paris in 1879. In 1883 she joined the women's studio of Alfred Stevens in Paris. Here she improved her ability to paint human figures. After she ended her teaching activities she fully concentrated on painting and continued to exhibit. Her study "Houffalize" was included in the collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium after it was exhibited in 1897. It was lost during the Second World War and no image of it survives. In 1903 she became a Knight of the Order of Leopold. She died in 1933 in Brussels. Her letters are kept in the archives of the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent. Family • Father: Héger, Constantin • Mother: Héger-Parent, Zoë • Brother: Héger, Paul Related persons • was pupil of Stevens, Alfred |
| Images | |
 The Héger family grave at the Cimetière de Watermael-Boitsfort, Brussels. Picture by Androom (27 May 2022) |
 The graves of Paul Héger (above right) and Louise Héger (under right) at the Cimetière de Watermael-Boitsfort, Brussels. Picture by Androom (27 May 2022) |
Sources • Brussels Brontë Blog: Exhibition and Lecture at Museum M, in Leuven • Louise Héger - Wikipédia (FR) |
