List of People From Brussels - Life and Work in Brussels

Life and Work in Brussels

Following notable people lived or worked in Brussels at least during a certain period of their life.

• Jean Absil (1893–1974 in Brussels), composer, organist, and professor at the Brussels Conservatory.
• Nicolas Ancion (born 1971), writer, lived and worked from 1994 till 2000 in Brussels
• Henryk Arctowski (1871 - 1958), scientist and Arctic explorer, worked at the Royal Observatory of Belgium from 1903 to 1909
• Arno (born 1949), rock artist from Ostend, lived a while in Brussels
• Benno Barnard (born 1954), Dutch writer
• Maurice Béjart (born 1927), French choreographer. He founded the Ballet du XXe Siècle in 1960 and the Mudra School in 1970, both in Brussels.
• Jules Bordet (1870–1961), immunologist and microbiologist. Founded the Pasteur Institute in Brussels. Winner of the 1919 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
• Jeroen Brouwers (born 1940), Dutch author. Lived from 1964 till 1976 in Brussels.
• Pieter Brueghel the Elder (c. 1525–1569), painter
• Jan Bucquoy (born 1945), filmmaker and director
• Hendrik Conscience (1812–1883), writer
• Jan Decorte (born 1950), dramatist
• Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (born 1960), choreographer. She founded the dance company Rosas in 1983 and the dance school P.A.R.T.S. in 1995 in Brussels.
• Marc Didden (born 1949) film director, made Brussels By Night (1983)
• Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536), humanist and theologian. Lived in Anderlecht (Erasmus House) from 31 May till 28 October 1521.
• M. C. Escher (1898-1972), Dutch graphic designer, lived in Uccle from 1937 to 1971.
• François-Joseph Fétis (1784–1871), musicologist, composer, critic and teacher, one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. He became director of the conservatory of Brussels and the chapelmaster of King Leopold I.
• Jan Greshoff (1888–1971), Dutch writer, lived from 1927 till 1939 in Schaerbeek on the August Reyerslaan 130.
• Willem Frederik Hermans (1921–1995), Dutch author.
• Victor Horta (1861–1947), architect, one of the most influential European Art Nouveau architects
• Enver Hoxha (1908-1985), Albanian dictator, worked as secretary at the Albanian consulate in Brussels from 1934 to 1936.
• Nicholas Lens, author/composer
• René Magritte (1898–1967), surrealist artist
• Ian McCulloch (born 1959), singer of the English rock band Echo & the Bunnymen
• Eddy Merckx (born 1945), considered by many to be the greatest cyclist of all-time. Youth and adolescent years in Brussels.
• Jef Mermans (1922–1996), nicknamed "The Bomber", football striker who played much of his career at R.S.C. Anderlecht
• Eugene Nida (1914-2011), linguist, developer of the dynamic-equivalence Bible-translation theory
• Amélie Nothomb (born 1967), novelist, writing in French
• Emma Orczy (1865-1947), Hungarian-British novelist, spent part of her childhood in Brussels (1868 to 1873).
• Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003), physicist and chemist. Studied chemistry in Brussels and was appointed in 1959 director of the International Solvay Institute in Brussels. He was awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874 in Brussels), astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist. He founded and directed the Brussels Observatory. Inventor of the Body mass index.
• Vini Reilly (Vincent Reilly, born 1953), rock musician, guitarist of the English band The Durutti Column. He also performed on Morrissey's first solo album in 1988.
• Jan van Ruysbroeck (also known as Jan van den Berghe), architect of the 15th century (dates of birth and death unknown). Amongst his work the belfry of the Hotel de Ville of Brussels.
• John of Ruysbroeck (or Jan, Jean, Johannes) (c. 1293–1381), 'mystic', priest in Brussels and Groenendaal
• Jan Zygmunt Skrzynecki (1787-1860), Polish general, high-ranking officer of the Belgian army from 1832 to 1839.
• Ernest Solvay (1838–1922), chemist, industrialist and philanthropist. Founded different institutes and the Solvay Business School in Brussels.
• Nicolas de Staël (born Nikolai Vladimirovich Stael von Holstein, 1914-1955), Russian-French abstract painter. Lived in Uccle from 1922 to the early 1930s and studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts.
• Olivier Strelli (born Nissim Israël, 1946), fashion designer
• Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502–1550), painter
• Roger van der Weyden (c. 1399–1464), painter
• Emond van Dynter (c. 1370–1449), writer
• Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Dutch painter, studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels from 1880 to 1881.
• Paul Van Himst (born 1943), nicknamed Polle Gazon, football player, four-times winner of the Belgian Golden Shoe award, eight-times winner of the Belgian championship with R.S.C. Anderlecht.
• Bernaert van Orley (c. 1488–1541), Renaissance painter
• Johan Verminnen (born 1951), singer-songwriter
• Antoine Wiertz (1806-1865), painter and sculptor