Galerie Paul Prouté

Born to Dutch parents, Eekman was born in Brussels on August 9, 1889, in the very house where Victor Hugo began writing Les Misérables. He began studying architecture at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts before turning to painting. He was captivated by the work of a Dutch painter who was little known at the time, Vincent van Gogh. At just 18 years old, he gave a lecture dedicated to him titled Van Gogh, cet inconnu. In 1912, an exhibition of the Dutch artist’s work in Cologne confirmed and deepened Eekman’s admiration for Van Gogh, whose style would have a lasting influence on his own art. He settled permanently in Paris in 1921, where he frequented the artistic circles of Montparnasse and met the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, alongside whom he exhibited at the Jeanne Bucher Gallery in 1928. It was also through this gallery owner that Eekman became friends with Marc Chagall, Max Jacob, and Max Ernst and his wife Marie-Berthe, whom he painted in a portrait.