Alfons de Cuyper (1887-1950) - Activities on the Vrijdagsmarkt in Ghent with 'Het Toreken,' on the left

Oil on canvas
Signed lower right

Alfons De Cuyper (1887-1950) took lessons at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, including with Jean Delvin.
He was a strong draftsman and won all first prizes in that discipline. In 1910 he also received the Grand Prize from the city of Ghent. In 1913 De Cuyper took second place for the Prize of Rome.
In Ghent, the picturesque old city center particularly appealed to him. It is characteristic that Alfons De Cuyper had a predilection for that Ghent quay life from the outset, with the comings and goings of people and horses opposite the decor of the Ghent houses and the silhouettes of the Ghent towers.
De Cuyper regularly exhibited in Ghent in the galleries Taets, Jordaens, Vyncke-Van Eyck, Pan and in the Kunst- en Letterkring. He also exhibited in Antwerp and Brussels and took part in Salons van Gent, Antwerp and Liège each time.

Het Toreken is a building on the corner of the Vrijdagmarkt and Kammerstraat in the Belgian city of Ghent.
During the 14th century, gray workers and sheepskin workers traded their merchandise there in a wooden building. It was converted to a stone structure in the 1450's. Het Toreken was also called 'Huidevettershuis' en 'Meerminne.'