Charles Michel was born in the town of Liege in 1874 where he studied at the academy. At the age of sixteen he moved to Paris where he attended art classes at the ateliers of both Benjamin Constant and Jean-Leon Gerome. This academic schooling would stand him in good stead and is evident in the technical mastery of his later works. His first major exhibition came in 1894 and strangely was not in either Brussels or Paris, but London when he was invited to show at the Royal Academy. Returning to Belgium he established a studio in Brussels and at first painted almost exclusively Orientalist scenes which were immensely popular at the time. He soon became a prominent part of the Belgium art establishment, was a member of the Society of Watercolor Painters and one of the founding members of the art group, ‘Pour L’Art’.
His work is Impressionist in style with a particular fondness for soft pastel coloring.
Lit; Arto
P. Piron
E. Benezit
