View of Ghent: A la Botte Royale, 1816

Charles Snoeck is a talented draughtsman from an early age. During Napoleon's reign, as a young man he decides to join the British army to fight. After his army period, he returns to Ghent and finds a job in a shop, but he also continues to draw and learns to make lithographs. He moved to Ronse and became a notary's clerk. In 1824, after the notary's death, he embarks on a two-month journey on foot through Switzerland. He publishes his travelogue along with the many drawings he made there. In the museum's collection are a large number of colourful drawings of soldiers, horsemen and people in traditional costume. Snoeck took part in the Belgian revolution of 1830. He would work as a notary in Ronse for another 30 years. In 1816, he painted the shoe shop 'A la Botte Royale' in the Voldersstraat in Ghent, a narrow street created in the 13th century and known for its low houses without an upper floor. The street name refers to the old inhabitants: the 'volders', craftsmen from the wool industry who worked the wool in such a way that the fabric shrank and became waterproof (also called 'felting'). The shoe shop that Snoeck depicts here is known to have later housed a furniture shop, a fabric shop, a pharmacy, hairdresser and eventually 'ensemblier Samyn'.