Frans Masereel

Frans Masereel (Blankenberge, Belgium 1889 - France 1972) was a Flemish painter and one of the greatest woodcut artist of the twentieth-century.

He was educated by the Ghent painter Jean Delvin at the Ghent Academy of Fine Art. He settled in France in 1910, then moved to Switzerland in 1914 then in 1921 to Paris and later Berlin where his closest creative friend was George Grosz. After the Second World War, Masereel lived in Avignon and Nice, France.

There is now a Frans Masereel Center ('Frans Masereel Centrum for Graphix') in the small village of Kasterlee in Belgium.

His greatest work is generally said to be the worldless graphic novel Mon Livre d'Heures (Passionate Journey). His work has strongly influenced the work of Clifford Harper.