Location: Franz Courtensstraat in the little park opposite nr. 11.
The ‘Rubens of landscape painting’: this was how Franz Courtens (1854-1943) was sometimes described. The most important exponent of the Dendermonde School, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in his birthplace, Dendermonde, but later settled in Brussels. At the start of his career he painted in a realistic style, but Impressionism was prefigured in his atmospheric landscapes. In 1922 King Albert I awarded him the title of Baron. The statue was erected in 1950. It is the work of Alfred Courtens, the painter’s son.
You can find his work on the first floor of the Town Hall but also in museums in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Australia. He was honoured by the inhabitants of Dendermonde with his own street and a statue on the banks of the Oude Dender (Old Dender).
