Within the family, it is mainly Nicole Lebrun, the granddaughter of Colin’s sister Colette, and her husband Bernard Évrard, who want to honour Jean Colin’s artistic memory through collecting his work and original documents. Jean Colin’s in-laws have also supplied works, documents and statements for the biographical content of the present publication. In 1937, Jean, by then fifty-six years old, finally married his favourite model Hortensia Martens3. As mentioned earlier on, this marriage did not produce any children. Hortensia had four sisters and two brothers, including Louis (b. 1884), who had one daughter: Leonie. Leonie Martens (1908-1992) married Maurits Rawoens (1909-1988) and three children were born from this marriage: Achiel (b. 1931), Marcella (1935-2012) and Ginette (b. 1949). Achiel is the last direct witness to have known Jean Colin and his wife personally, as he was thirty when Jean Colin passed away. Achiel may be considered the head of the extended family – to which nephews and nieces should be added –, most of whom own or owned Jean Colin’s works. Like Nicole Lebrun and her husband Bernard Évrard, Achiel has always been one of Jean Colin’s passionate devotees. These two branches – Achiel was not even aware that there were still other living members of Jean Colin’s family – each own a number of paintings, including a few absolute masterpieces that they had preserved or even bought back. They also owned – and this is at least equally important – numerous original documents from Jean Colin’s estate, including pictures of his studio and family photographs, authentic black-and-white pictures of the oeuvre, drawings and sketches, catalogues, newspaper clippings and correspondence. A Belgian serviceman by profession, Achiel Rawoens was appointed a Nato attaché in Decem- ber 1956. For this reason, he settled in Virginia, near Washington DC, where he has lived ever since. In September 2016, I visited this ‘last witness’ for the first time. His house was a virtual museum of personal memories, with each object occupying a prominent place, as if it were a treasure. Obviously, he also owned a collection of paintings, drawings, sketches and original photographs of his great-uncle’s oeuvre, in which his great-aunt often figured. Even authentic objects which had been depicted in some of the paintings were lovingly displayed, such as the antique lace shawl from 1622 worn by great-aunt Hortensia in the portrait La Dame en noir [The lady in black]4, a special earthenware jug which features in several of Jean Colin’s still lifes, a red coral necklace which served – with other objects – as an accessory for the painting Petit déjeuner dans le jardin [Breakfast in the garden] (#045), authentic painter’s tools and much more. It goes without saying that Achiel greatly appreciated his great-uncle’s art works, especially those which depict his own great-aunt, but – like most of the objects in his private museum – they were first and foremost of emotional value to him. The art-historical significance was of secondary importance. In spite of a few health problems, the ‘last witness’ radiated a pure zest for life. For instance, a military report at the time reproached him for being ‘giggly’. Not surprisingly, we spent the next three days relishing the memory of his still exceptionally vivid memories of Jean Colin and the numerous juicy anecdotes from his own life. Until the present publication, little was known about Jean Colin’s life and work; and even some of this limited amount of information proved to be incorrect. But thanks to the comprehensive family archive – with additional information from public collections –, the information handed down by Susanne Laurent (to whom this book is dedicated) and Achiel Rawoens’ testimony, we were able to put together the biographical jigsaw of Jean Colin’s life. We may count ourselves lucky, for it will become clear that this material fills a gap in Belgian art history, certainly so when one becomes acquainted with the visual material of the initially ‘hidden’ masterpieces in Jean Colin’s oeuvre. Copyright © Marc Pairon: Impressionism :Hidden Masterpieces of Jean Colin