Henry van Straten - Virtuoos Vlaams Graficus - Litho op papier - la danseuse - monogram - Sold

Henri Van Straten (Antwerp, October 5, 1892 – disappeared without a trace on September 7, 1944) was a Flemish artist.

Together with Frans Masereel, Jan-Frans Cantré, Jozef Cantré and Joris Minne, Henri Van Straten belonged to the well-known Five , who renovated Flemish woodcarving after the First World War. Van Straten was one of the founders of the Lumière association.

Van Straten received his artistic training at the NHISKA (National Higher Institute of Fine Arts, Antwerp) under the direction of Edward Pellens. Under the direction of JJ Aarts he received further art education at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam, where he stayed as an expatriate soldier during the First World War.

In addition to his wood engraving art, in which he excelled, he also practiced lithography and painting, in which he expressed a very sensuous humanism. He already caused a stir with his "Crossroads" and with records such as "Don Juan" (1925), "Emigrants" (1927), "La Boudeuse" (1931), "Poet of the Arms" (1932), "The soldier's love" ( 1934) and the later masterpiece "The meek" (1942) he emerged as the most virtuoso and refined among modern Flemish woodcarvers.

From 1933 he lived in Heide-Kalmthout. He disappeared without a trace in September 1944, while on foot from Antwerp to Kalmthout, presumably during the bombing of Merksem. In 1992 a street in Heide Kalmthout (Henri Van Stratenlaan) was named after him.