Henri Logelain was a Belgian painter, draftsman, watercolourist, engraver and teacher.

Logelain studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels and in Rome at the Academia Belgica. He taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leuven as well as the School of Decorative Arts in Vilvoorde. Logelain was a member of the free ‘Effort’ workshop where he met Auguste Oleffe, of the Belgian Royal Society of Watercolourists and the Belgian Society of Painters of the sea.

He started to exhibit his works as from 1911. He exposed at the Venice Biennale in 1934 and at the Biennale in 1938, a room was dedicated to him. He was also present at the Brussels World’s Fair (1958).

As a watercolourist, his favourite subjects are landscapes, still lifes, marine, urban views and portraits. Mainly a realistic and neo-impressionist painter, he knows a ‘Fauve’ period around 1910. He travelled to the Belgian Congo in 1938, and realized many portraits of Congolese.

His works are in the Print Room of the Royal Library of Belgium and the museums of Brussels, Ghent, Ixelles, Charleroi, Kortrijk, Namur and Ostend.

A monument with a medallion bearing his likeness engraved by René Ratchet stands in the gardens of the Abbey of La Cambre in Ixelles.

Antwerp harbour