A painter, and etcher of landscapes, figures, cityscapes and animals and book illustrator, Josef Nuyttens was a native of Belgium, where he studied at the Antwerp Royal Academy.  He continued his art education in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.  By 1905, he was exhibiting his work in Belgium.  "By the end of the First World War (1918), he had emerged as one of Belgium's leading artists and received the bronze medal from the Queen of Belgium as well as the Chevalier of the Order of Leoopold II." (artoftheprint)

In the mid 1920s, Nuyttens moved to the United States, first living in New York and then settling in Chicago, where he studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Many of his etchings, oil paintings and plates were destroyed in Chicago in a house fire in which he lost his life in 1960.

Sources:

http://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/nuyttens_josef_pierre_windmillandcanal.htm

http://oz.wikia.com/wiki/Joseph_Pierre_Nuyttens

Biography from the Archives of askART