Emile Claus: The Painter of Light and the Lys Born in Sint-Eloois-Vijve, a small village nestled along the banks of the River Lys in West Flanders, Belgium, on September 27th, 1849, Emile Claus’s life was inextricably linked to the landscape that would become the very essence of his art. The twelfth child in a large family—his father, Alexander, a grocer and publican, and his mother, Célestine Verbauwhede, a woman of Brabant skipper lineage—Claus’s early years were marked by a practical upbringing, far removed from the world of artistic pursuits. However, even as a young boy, he demonstrated…