Jan Van Beers

Vocation

Belgian poet and teacher of Dutch language and literature. His father Jan Bavo brew liquors, his mother Maria Theresia van Meensel was the daughter of a sexton. After studying at the Minor Seminary of Mechelen (1833-41), Van Beers became a teacher of Dutch language and literature in Mechelen , later in Lier (1849). In 1860 he was appointed as professor of Dutch letters at the Athenaeum (high school) in Antwerp. He wrote his first poems in French, later under the influence of Tollens and Conscience's De leeuw van Vlaanderen, became interested in the Dutch language, when the Flemish movement began. He composed a Dutch grammar book (1852) and a volume of selections from Dutch authors, both books being so much appreciated that the Belgian government made them text-books in the public schools. He was a gifted orator and was elected in 1875 as a member of the Antwerp city. Here he had great influence on education, literature and the visual arts. As a teacher elocution at the Conservatory, he contributed to the development of the Dutch theatre in Antwerp. He died 14 November 1888 in Antwerpen. Personal In 1850 he married Hendrika Mertens (6 July 1825, Antwerpen - 1896). They got five children. His son Jan van Beers the younger became a noted painter. Link to Wikipedia