Artists with a thirst for adventure

Have you ever come across place Akarova, behind the Brigittines church, on your strolls through Brussels? The square got its name from our first extraordinary woman!

Marguerite Acarin, better known under the pseudonym of Akarova, was a versatile artist: a dancer, singer and choreographer, she was also extremely active in the field of painting and sculpture. She will remain famous, however, for her contributions to dance. She had her own performance hall built, where she could continue her research independently. This building, now transformed into an apartment block, is still visible today at 72 Avenue de l'Hippodrome in Ixelles, by the Ixelles ponds and not far from place Eugène Flagey. Akarova lived above the performance hall up to her death in 1999. She now rests in Ixelles cemetery.

Have you ever heard of Anna Boch? She was one of the founding members of the Belgian League for Women's Rights, and an accomplished painter in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Her surname might very well ring a bell... Anna was the daughter of Victor Boch, one of the founders of the well-known Royal-Boch-Keramis faience factory, located in La Louvière and which brought its commercial activity to an end only some ten years ago.

Born in 1848 in the Hainaut, Anna grew up as part of the upper middle class, meaning she enjoyed great material wealth. Her childhood was spent in La Closière, in an extravagant castle that Poelaert built for her father. With an artistic background in music and painting, she was often seen with great names such as Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec.

She first received musical training, before turning her hand to painting, which she studied in Brussels with Isidore Verheyden and Theo Van Rysselberghe, which explains her preference for non-traditional art. She was soon drawn, like her brother, to the great names in art, such as Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec. 

In 1907, Anna acquired a car and travelled across Europe alone, which was most unusual at the time! She had a sumptuous mansion built in Ixelles, at the intersection of the Rue de l'Abbaye and the Chaussée de Vleurgat. Inspired by Art Nouveau, it was demolished in 1954 to make room for a corner apartment building. She organised musical Mondays at her residence, set up a significant patronage and amassed a collection of paintings that was dispersed at her death. Among others, she bought a Van Gogh, quite possibly the only painting he sold during his lifetime!

Anna died in Brussels in 1936.

Have you heard of the adventurous women who travelled round the world in the 19th century? Alexandra David-Néel was one of those pioneers! Originally from Paris, she moved to Brussels - Ixelles to be precise - at the age of 6. After studying at the Brussels Conservatory, she turned to a career as an orientalist, Tibetologist, opera singer, journalist and writer, no less!

Immensely curious about life, she joined anarchist and feminist circles and converted to Buddhism at the age of 21. She travelled through Europe and then to Indochina, Tunisia, India, Korea, China and even Tibet, becoming in 1924 the first European woman to stay there.

At only 78 years old, she came back to France for a more relaxed life. She was almost 101 years old when she died!