Edmond De Maertelaere was born in Ghent, Belgium on October 8, 1876, the son of Polydorus De Maertelaere and Maria Theresia Van Der Straeten. He was a painter, draftsman, designer of posters and stained glass, book illustrator and muralist. His painting subjects in realist style included floral still life, landscape, marine genre, and figures such as fisher folk, female nudes, ballet dancers, mothers and children and religious subjects.

At age 14, De Maertelaere won first prize in ornamental drawing at the local industrial school. Subsequently he enrolled at the "Royal Academy of Teeken, Sculpture and Architecture of the City of Ghent," then called the Academy of Fine Arts. He left in 1898 as a prize winner of the gold me...