Marcel Verhofstadt is a Belgian painter who started his studies in 1960 at the Saint Josse-ten-noode Academy in Brussels.

There he met the watercolour painter Doris Kiesewetter, who was to become his companion and his muse for 50 years.

He joined the Mouvement Réaliste (Realist Movement) in 1969, along with Somville, Goldmann, Mandelbaum, Dubrunfaut, Dulieu, Henrion, Madlener, Muller, Timper and Verwish.

His watercolours are directly in touch with nature, principally that of Brittany, the Dolomites, the Gorges du Tarn and the Crêtes du Verdon; his oil paintings are more meditative. He is seen as a “Romantic Expressionist” whose works stand out for their exhuberant use of colour and for his capacity to synthesize.