John Goossens    (1889-1968)

John Goossens, born August 27, 1889 in Norway, Michigan, was a painter of the figure, plus landscape and still life.  He was born in Norway of Flemish parentage.  He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago under Frederick Poole, F. De Forest Shook, and George Oberteuffer.   He also received instruction at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. 

The artist was a member of the Chicago Art Institute Alumni Association, the All-Illinois Society of the Fine Arts, the American Federation of Arts, and the St. Lucas Guild, Antwerp, Belgium.  He was awarded two blue ribbons at Aurora, Illinois, 1927; two red ribbons the following year; and an honorable mention in Springfield, Illinois in 1928.  He had his first one-man show at the Bankers Building in Chicago in the spring of 1929.

“Mr. Goossens is primarily a colorist with great feeling for texture, form and depth in his paintings.”

The artist died July 6, 1968 in Chicago.

Sources: 
Catalog: Century of Progress exhibition by artists of Illinois. 1933.  Additional information from the Illinois Historical Art Project. 

Submitted by Edward P. Bentley, researcher from Lansing, Michigan.