On the advice of his father, who was a teacher in the French laguage, Le Comte went to study at the Faculty of Arts in Leiden. In 1869 he decided that he would rather become an artist and he took the course for drawing at the Polytechnic School in Delft.

In 1871 he made a trip through Germany and briefly attended the arts & crafts schools in Karlsruhe and Düsseldorf. After obtaining his certificate in 1872, he went to Paris for a year, where he worked in a decoration studio and also drew models at several free academies.

From 1874, Le Comte was a teacher in Delft and at the Academy in The Hague to supplement his income. In 1894 Le Comte resigned from the Polytechnic School. In 1902 he became a teacher again, this time at the Rotterdam Academy, where he would stay until 1908.

In addition to teaching, Le Comte had enough time to remain active as a designer himself. In 1877 he became ‘artistic advisor’ of the Delft pottery factory ‘De Porceleyne Fles’. He also painted and drew, mainly landscapes.

This painting, a small oil on panel, is entitled ‘The Blue House’. It is painted in a fairly matte color scheme and shows some similarities, in style, with his Jugendstil/Art Nouveau designs, which he made for ‘De Porceleyne Fles’.

 

 

Other work in the collection by A. le Comte: