René François Ghislain Magritte (French: [ʁəne fʁɑ̃swa ɡilɛ̃ maɡʁit]; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and boundaries of reality and representation. His imagery has influenced pop art, minimalist art, and conceptual art.
César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck (French pronunciation: [sezaʁ oɡyst ʒɑ̃ ɡijom ybɛʁ fʁɑ̃k]; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in present-day Belgium.
He was born in Liège (which at the time of his birth was part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands). He gave his first concerts there in 1834 and studied privately in Paris from 1835, where his teachers included Anton Reicha. After a brief return to Belgium, and a disastrous reception of an early oratorio Ruth, he moved to Paris, where he married and embarked on a career as teacher and organist. He gained a reputation as a formidable musical improviser, and travelled widely within France to demonstrate new instruments built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.
In 1858, he became organist at the Basilica of St. Clotilde, Paris, a position he retained for the rest of his life. He became professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1872; he took French nationality, a requirement of the appointment. After acquiring the professorship, Franck wrote several pieces that have entered the standard classical repertoire, including symphonic, chamber, and keyboard works for pipe organ and piano. As a teacher and composer he had a vast following of composers and other musicians. His pupils included Ernest Chausson, Vincent d'Indy, Henri Duparc, Guillaume Lekeu, Albert Renaud, Charles Tournemire and Louis Vierne.
Anne-Marie Lizin-Vanderspeeten (5 January 1949 – 17 October 2015) was a Belgian politician, who served as the President of the Senate of Belgium from 2004 to 2007.
Éric Deflandre (born 2 August 1973) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a right-back.
Pierre Paulus (1881–1959), later Baron Pierre Paulus de Châtelet, was a Belgian expressionist painter. He is best known as the designer of the "bold rooster" (French: coq hardi) adopted on 3 July 1913 as the symbol of the Walloon Movement and today the flag of Wallonia.Paulus gained notability during the Walloon Art Exposition of Charleroi in 1911 and, in the interwar period, he held several exhibitions in Europe and in the United States.
Georges, Count Jacobs de Hagen (born 1940) is a leading Belgian businessman.
Jacobs obtained a PhD degree in Law (1962) and a licentiate in economics (1964) from the Universite Catholique de Louvain (Belgium). He also obtained a MA degree in economics at the University of California (Berkeley, U.S., 1965).
Jacobs started his career as an economist with the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. in 1966. In 1970, he joined the UCB Group and has been chairman of the Executive Committee of UCB since 1987 until the end of 2004. Since January 2005 he is chairman of the board of directors of UCB Group and chairman of the board of directors of Delhaize Group. Georges Jacobs also serves on the board of directors of UCB, Belgacom, Bekaert, Spadel and SN Brussels Airlines. He is an honorary chairman of UNICE (Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe) and a member of the Management Committee and honorary chairman of the Federation of Belgian Companies.
Jacobs is chairman of the Belgo-Luxemburg-Polish chamber of commerce, and a member of the board of the American Chamber of Commerce and the British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium. He is also member of the board of Générale de Banque, IBM Belgium, Spadel S.A., L.I.V. N.V. (Groupe Carmeuse).
Alphonse Briart (1825–1898) was supervisor of the coal mines at Bascoup and Mariemont near Morlanwelz in the Hainaut province of Belgium, and a geologist who studied that region. During the period 1863–1896 he and Francois Cornet published a number of books and papers describing fossils and geological structures found near Mons. They devised theories - now generally accepted - as to the geological history of the region. After Cornet's death in 1887, Briart continued to write alone.
The mineral Briartite is named for his grandson, Gaston Briart. In 1890 his son Paul took part in Delcommune's Katanga expedition.
Sandrine Corman (born 12 April 1980 in Verviers, Belgium) is a Belgian tv host and beauty pageant titleholder.
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (1858–1910) was a Belgian architect and furniture designer. He is credited (along with Paul Hankar, Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde) with creating the Art Nouveau style, coined as a style in Paris by art dealer Siegfried Bing.
Steve Houben (born 19 March 1950 in Liège, Belgium) is a Belgian jazz saxophonist and flutist.