Early Life, Family and Training Antoon Van Ysendyck entered the world in Antwerp, Belgium, on 13 January 1801. He was born into a family where the sea and the struggle for sustenance were close at hand, as his father, Adrien-François Van Ysendyck, worked as a fisherman. Though his father’s roots traced back to Bruges, the young Antoon would find his own destiny within the walls of the great academies of his birthplace. The boy’s path toward the brush became clear in 1816 when he began his formal studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. He possessed a natural inclination for the…