Léon Spilliaert was born on July 28, 1881 in Oostende, Belgium. His father had his own barbershop in Oostende. Léon started attending school at the O.L.V. College, where fellow artist James Ensor had also studied. At age 18 Léon Spilliaert decided to sign up for the Academy of Arts in Bruges but to his own disappointment this didn't was what he wanted so he already resigned after a couple of months.

Spilliaert decided that no formal art education would match his needs, so he decided to become a self-taught artist. Anti-social and in poor health, most of his youth spent sketching scenes of ordinary life and the Belgian countryside. When he was 21 he went to work for a publisher in Brussels.

Probably due to his lach of formal education, Léon Spilliaert's paintings are hard to categorise, mainly using dreamy soft colors that convey a sense of melancholy and gloom. Most of his paintings are scenes of everyday people in common surroundings.

Léon Spilliaert died on November 23, 1946 because of a heart disease ("angina pectoris").