Albert Delstanche was born into a family of physicians and artists in Brussels, Belgium in 1870. He was educated in Brussels and Düsseldorf, but following the German invasion of Belgium and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Delstanche, like many Belgian artists and cultural figures, sought refuge in the UK. Delstanche is remembered as a poetic engraver and painter.
Engraver, illustrator, and painter, Albert Delstanche was born in 1870 in Brussels, Belgium, into a family of physicians and artists. His maternal grandfather was the painter and lithographer, Jean-Baptiste Madou. Delstanche showed an interest in art at an early age and made his first print while still in secondary school. Though he initially followed his father’s wishes by studying law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he obtained his doctorate with highest honours in 1891, he ultimately turned to art, encouraged by his wife, the artistically gifted Madeleine Vanderborght, whom he married in 1895. He began formal artistic training at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels under Alexandre Robert and Joseph Stallaert, and furthered his studies in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1899. Delstanche also earned a degree in art and archaeology and worked for several years at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.
In 1903, Delstanche joined the Cabinet des Estampes at the Royal Library of Belgium, initially as a volunteer and later as a permanent staff member. This role provided him both with financial stability and an intellectual environment conducive to his passion for printmaking. He published several scholarly articles on historical print techniques and was particularly drawn to the monotype, which became a hallmark of his practice. After producing his first etchings in 1907 and embarking on a study trip to Italy the following year, Delstanche left his post in 1910 to focus exclusively on his artistic career. His work, often inspired by the Belgian countryside and seascapes, exhibited remarkable sensitivity to light and texture, particularly in his delicate ink washes and monotypes. Though technically not reproducible in the traditional sense, his monotypes reflected a painterly sensibility, combining spontaneity with finesse in tonal gradation and gesture.
Following the German invasion of Belgium and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Delstanche, like some 1,600 Belgian artists and cultural figures, sought refuge in the UK. He joined fellow artists, such as Émile Claus, Valerius de Saedeleer, Jenny Montigny, Constant Permeke, André Cluysenaar, and Jean Guillaume Rosier in exile, quickly integrating into Britain’s artistic and cultural networks. In London, Delstanche became a central figure in the Belgian émigré community, serving as secretary to the Committee for Belgian Artists in Exile, replacing Jules Destrée. He worked closely with artists, including Alfred Bastien, Claus, Jean Delville, and Georges Minne, while also holding a position at the British War Department (War Office) as a multilingual postal censor. During this period, he remained creatively active, contributing illustrations to Émile Verhaeren’s The Little Towns of Flanders (1915) and Charles De Coster’s The Legend of Tyl Ulenspiegel (1918), both published by Chatto & Windus. His work also featured in A Book of Belgium’s Gratitude (1916), a volume created by Belgian refugees to thank the British public, which accompanied an exhibition at the Knoedler Galleries.
Delstanche’s style is characterised by its quiet lyricism and technical sophistication. Working across etching, monotype, ink and wash, he brought a deeply poetic sensibility to scenes of domestic life, Flemish towns, and rural landscapes. His prints often exhibit a controlled spontaneity, with light and shadow rendered through gestural line and richly textured surfaces. Figures and architectural forms appear both precise and dreamlike, suggesting emotional weight through subtle distortions. Whether depicting solemn processions or quiet interiors, Delstanche balanced narrative intimacy with formal restraint, while cultivating a deeply introspective visual language.
After the war, Delstanche returned to Belgium, where he resumed his practice with new focus. He spent time in the South of France with the painter, Jean Vanden Eeckhoudt and focused on expressive portraits and landscapes inspired by Mediterranean settings. In the early 1920s, he deepened his engagement with etching, drypoint, ink drawings and watercolour, often turning to maritime scenes and domestic subjects, especially his grandchildren. He illustrated Verhaeren’s La Guirlande des dunes (1921) which exemplifies his more restrained line and tonal precision. In 1929, Delstanche settled permanently in the village of Ohain, where he continued to work prolifically until the end of his life. Though he rarely exhibited, preferring to work outside the commercial art world, his work was occasionally shown at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and in group exhibitions in Amsterdam and Brussels. However, he was the subject of several posthumous exhibitions, with the one at the Lancz Gallery in Brussels in 2019 being particularly successful.
In 1940, Delstanche was elected a corresponding member of the engraving section of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts of Belgium. Albert Delstanche died in Ohain, Belgium in 1941. His works are held in public collections in the UK, including the British Museum and the V&A, with some letters at Tate archive