Henri Anspach

Born as the son of a Jewish engineer and professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Brussels), Henri Anspach pursued an artistic career and attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Liège. In 1909 he had his first exhibition of paintings, watercolours, and drawings at the local Cercle des Beaux-Arts. In 1910, he was represented at the Bruxelles World’s Fair and later at the Salon des Artistes Français and the Salon d’Automne in Paris.

Anspach started his fencing career in 1903 and competed with all three weapons at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. He achieved his greatest success as a team member of the gold medal winning Belgian men’s épée team which also included his cousin Paul Anspach.

In World War I, Anspach enlisted in the artistic section of the Belgian army and was wounded at Ypres in 1915. Subsequently, he attended a military school in Gaillon. His war experiences also influenced his later artistic works. After the war, he settled in the Haute-Garonne department in France and continued to exhibit his works in Paris (Salon des Indépendants, Salon d’Automne, Salon des Artistes Français) and Bruxelles at least until the 1960s. His works included portraits, figures, genre scenes, and landscapes.

In 1918, he married Madeleine Claire Pouchet with whom he had two children. After an unhappy marriage she committed suicide in 1933. During the German occupation in World War II, he was a member of the French resistance movement.