Charles Ernest de Belle
(1873 - 1939)

Charles de Belle Biography
(1873 - 1939)

Born in Budapest, Hungary, as a boy he drew and painted with the encouragement of his uncle. On his 16th birthday he went to Paris where he studied for four years. He won several scholarships and later, an annual grant from the Royal Academy, London, which enabled him to travel and study in Europe at Antwerp (1885 onwards); Paris 1889 (onwards); London, England (1883). In Ireland he was an illustrator for the Dublin Times and he also married an Irish girl. He later returned to England.

In his paintings he developed his own method of fixative for his pastel work and mounted his pictures between two pieces of glass. He started working in oils about 1904. He came to Canada in 1912 with his wife and children and became a painter of portraits, landscapes, and children. He did some exceptional winter scenes. He held two large exhibitions in Montreal, one at the home of Lady Mortimer Davis in 1923 and another at the home of Mrs. Edward Maxwell in 1925. He shifted to oils when ill health deprived him of the rigid control in his hands, so necessary in pastel work.

He presented his canvas “In Flanders Fields” to McGill University in memory of Dr. McCrae, author of the poem “In Flanders Field” and who was a member of the McGill faculty of medicine. His work is in private collections in U.S.A., England, Scotland, Ireland, Europe and in Canada including at the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977