FINCH, Alfred William

Belgian painter and potter. He studied painting at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts et Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Brussels from 1878 to 1880. He was a founder-member of Les XX, a group of 20 avant-garde artists who held annual exhibitions of paintings and decorative arts between 1884 and 1895. Initially Finch painted land- and seascapes in the Impressionist style.

In 1887 he saw Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon at the Ile de la Grande Jatte, and he became the first Belgian to adopt Neo-Impressionism. In 1889 he exhibited for the first time with the Indépendants in Paris. From 1891 he concentrated on ceramics.

In 1897 he was appointed Director of a ceramics concern in Finland. He introduced Finnish painters to the new styles of Neo-Impressionism and worked at the revival of Finnish architecture.