3-074-559 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Henri Conscience, Flemish novelist, 1883. Engraving from a photograph published by J. M. Schalekamp. 'The Flemish language is not generally studied by the amateurs of foreign literature throughout Europe, but it has some original authors, both ancient and modern, of considerable merit, while it preserves, in many vigorous imaginative creations, the racy characteristics of that small but historically important nation...Henri Conscience inherited from his Belgian mother a strong predilection for her country and its people, which led him, in after-life, to become the foremost literary opponent of the tendency to supersede Flemish by French in the ordinary speech, the newspapers, the letters, and the books of his countrymen. He was an enthusiastic patriot in the Belgian Revolution of 1830...he was for some time a private teacher, but found an employment more worthy of his genius in writing tales illustrative of the national history, social life and manners, and in editing collections of Flemish poetry...In 1845, he was appointed to a professorship in the University of Ghent, and afterwards undertook the instruction of the Royal children, including the present King, Leopold II., in the Flemish language and literature'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.