It’s easy to spot a former artist’s house in Brussels. They almost always have a large studio window on an upper floor facing north for the best light. There’s one that stands out at Rue de l’Abbaye 12. It has a plaque next to the door. Henry Cassiers lived and died here, it says.
Born in Antwerp in 1858, Henry Cassiers was a Belgian art nouveau artist who mainly produced bright advertising posters and illustrated postcards. He built a summer house in the new beach town of De Haan in 1888 and went on to design a famous art nouveau advertising poster in 1897 that is still sold in the tourist office. It shows a group of women in traditional costumes watching tourists head off in the direction of the Grand Hôtel du Coq.
Cassiers also produced a number of iconic art nouveau posters for the Red Star Line that captured the glamour of transatlantic liners.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
