Armand Heins - THE GROUND

Armand Heins Armand Jean Heins (Ghent, August 1, 1856 - Ghent, December 25, 1938) was a Belgian etcher, lithographer, painter and printer.
Family
His father, Jean Nicolas Heins, came from a family of Luxembourgish (Grevenmacher) wine growers. He studied at the Liège and Ghent art academies and specialized in lithography. His mother was Thérèse Jeanne Demaertelaere. Her brother Louis Demaertelaere was a gifted painter. Armand Heins also had an older brother Julien (musician-composer), a sister Adeline and a younger brother Maurice who was a lawyer, city secretary and photographer. Armand Heins therefore had artistic talent in his genes.
Beginning artist
Heins took lessons at the Ghent Academy of Fine Arts from 1867 to 1878. This last year he took first place ahead of his friend Gustave Vanaise. For this he received a bounty of 3,000 francs and an allowance of 500 francs from the city of Ghent. During these years he was already active as a lithographer in his father's printing house. He also became proficient in watercolors in which the influence of his uncle Louis Demaertelaere was clearly visible.
Encouraged by his place as final laureate and the additional prize, he and his friend Fernand Scribe undertook a study trip to Italy with a stopover in Paris. Here he became acquainted with art directions and styles that were common in these countries at the time. He recorded his impressions in numerous watercolours, sketches and oil paintings, which he later processed into beautiful etchings when he returned home. Closer to home, he made beautiful sketches and watercolors of the rural environment outside Ghent and during his trips to Zeeland and the coast. His preference for the rural will also return in his later works.