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Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach


(German, Hadamar 1851 – Capri 1913)

Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach

(German, Hadamar 1851 – Capri 1913)

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1900   

Oil on canvas

Signed and dated K.W. Diefenbach, Capri 1900 

Sitter: Presumably his daughter

H. 74 cm, W. 48,50 cm

Museums: Kalningrad (Königsberg), Graz, Capri

 

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 4) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 564; Thieme, U., & Becker, F. (vol. 9) (1999), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, p. 228.

 



Pharaoh and Oriental Woman

L. Govaere
(Belgian, 19th - 20th century)

Pharaoh and Oriental Woman
L. Govaere
(Belgian, 19th - 20th century)

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Two orientalist paintings

End of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century

Oil on canvas

When framed, both paintings lost a small part of their canvas; however the signatures have been saved: ‘Pharaoh’: signature at lower right, ‘Oriental woman’: signature at lower left

H. 46.50 cm, W. 28 cm



The prisoner

Alexander Theodore Honoré Struys
(Belgian, Berchem 1852 – Uccle 1941)

The prisoner
Alexander Theodore Honoré Struys
(Belgian, Berchem 1852 – Uccle 1941)

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Alexander Struys was a Belgian history, interiors, genre and portrait oil and aquarel painter, and etcher. In the beginning of his career, influenced by the painters Jan Van Beers en Henri Jacques Bource, he created romantic scenes, but after his professional career in Weimar (1877-1882), he specialised in particular socially inspired genre scenes of the poor and their misery, their sorrows in the naturalist and realistic style. These themes reflect the rather dark, gloomy, pathetic tone of his work.

His father - originally from Holland - was a master glass painter. At the age of six, Struys was already a student (1858-1862) at the Academy of Dordrecht in the Netherlands under Johannes Rutten (1809-1884). From 1864 until 1871, he studied under Polydore Beaufaux (1829-1905) and Jozef Van Lerius (1823-1875) at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Antwerpen (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) in Antwerp. In 1897 he became a member of this Antwerp academy. He was a friend of a.o. painter and etcher Piet Verhaert (1852-1908), the sculptor Jef Lambeaux (1852-1908) and painter Jan Van Beers (1852-1927).

From 1871 on, he exhibited at the Salon in Ghent, at the Salon de Paris and later on at the Salon des Artistes Français. He received a Médaille d’Or in 1899 and a Grand Prix in 1900 at the Exposition Universelle.

He travelled with Jan Van Beers to France and England (London), where they tried to sell their paintings, but they didn’t make enough money and were forced to return to Belgium. Struys worked during a short period together with painter Henri Jacques Bource (1826-1899). Bource was a painter of landscapes, marines and portraits, but his favorite themes where the scenes from the everyday life of fisherman and their families.

Struys’ anti-clerical painting, Birds of Prey, created a scandal in 1876.

In 1877, he became professor at the Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule Weimar (Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School), he followed in the footsteps of his fellow Belgian colleagues, Charles Verlat (1824-1890) – who had been appointed in 1866 as the Weimar school’s director – and Ferdinand Pauwels (1830-1904) – from 1862 to 1872 professor of historical painting at the same school. One of Struys’ students was Christian Rohlfs (1849-1939), a German painter who became one of the important representatives of German Expressionism. Struys occupied this position until 1882, the year he moved to The Hague (Netherlands) where he was active as a portrait painter for two years, until he returned to Belgium.

Because Struys didn’t have a studio, he painted in the homes of the poor people he depicted. His work attracted much attention and praise in the more socially conscious publications of that time. He became a close friend of the Dutch-Flemish painter Jacob Smits (1855-1928), who’s work was very strongly – due to his own life – involved with social issues. Some critics at the time referred to him as the ’painter of misery and pain’.

Struys settled in 1883 in Malines and became head of the Malines’ Royal Drawing Academy. In 1902, he joined the administrative commission for the ninth exhibition organised by the Société des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles. In 1905 he became vice-president of the Société Royale des Beaux-Arts. That same year, he was in charge of the preparations of the Exposition Rétrospective de l'Art Belge (Retrospective Belgian Art Exhibition), one of the events to celebrate Belgium’s 75th anniversary. He was (since 1897) also a member of the Académie Royale de Belgique (Royal Belgian Academy) and the Institut de France (French Institute) in Paris, grouping five academies of which the Académy Française (French Academy) is the most famous.

   

Oil on canvas

Signed at lower left Alexander Struys

H. 137 cm, W. 99 cm

Museums: Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Liège, Malines, Tournai, Dordrecht, Wartburg, Weimar, Philadelphia

 

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 13) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 320; Pas, W. & G. (vol. 2) (2000), ARTO 2000 Biografisch Lexicon Plastische Kunst in België. Schilders Beeldhouwers Grafici 1830-2000, Antwerpen: De Gulden Roos, p. 370.



The Exodus from Antwerp

Antoine François Louis van Engelen
(Belgian, Lier 1856 – Antwerp 1940)

The Exodus from Antwerp
Antoine François Louis van Engelen
(Belgian, Lier 1856 – Antwerp 1940)

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Louis van Engelen was a realist painter of animals, portraits, panoramic paintings, urban landscapes with figures, genre scenes, landscapes and the river banks of the Scheldt and the Rupel.

Realism and then Impressionism had a seriously tight hold on nineteenth century history painting. The ambitious compositions deployed a strong narrative potential.

After studying at the Fine Arts Academy in Lier, his hometown near Antwerp, the young van Engelen studied commercial sciences and began working for the law court. But he picked up again his artistic aspirations and completed his training at the prestigious Antwerp Academy, together with Piet van Engelen (1863-1924), his younger brother. His older brother August van Engelen (1853-1871) was a painter too.

After a brilliant international career, the painter and engraver Charles Verlat (1824-1890) returned in May 1877 to Antwerp, where he was appointed professor of painting, then director of the Royal Academy (1885). He passed on his epic aspirations to his students. He created spectacular panoramic paintings and realised together with Louis Van Engelen (until 1881) paintings of the battle of Waterloo in 1815 and the battle of Bapaume during the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, which enthused the audience. In 1882 the teacher and his student went to Russia, where they set up a panorama of the city of Moscow.

Louis van Engelen travelled a lot: i.a. to Italy (1883), to the Northern United States, the Congo Free State (1893) and the Kerguelen Islands (also known as the Desolation Islands) in the southern Indian Ocean. These journeys resulted in two publications: Mon voyage au Congo en 1893 (My trip to Congo in 1893) (1930) and Le mémorable voyage du S.Y. Silica (The memorable trip of S.Y. Silica) (1932).

Well integrated in the Flemish art world, Louis van Engelen was a member of the art circle Als ik Kan (If I Can, the motto of the famous Flemish Renaissance painter, Jan van Eyck (1390-1441)) (1889). Als ik Kan organized numerous exhibitions in Europe, contributing to the artist’s international reputation. Van Engelen was also a founding member of the art group De XIII (The XIII) (1891).

Following the principles of the modern school, Louis van Engelen loved to work outdoors. On the river banks of the Scheldt and the Rupel, he represented the vivid landscapes of everyday life, such as the winter joy of skaters. His compositions show genre scenes with characters from the lower social class but also cultivated genre scenes, like a meeting at the Belvedere coffee shop bringing together the beau monde of Antwerp.

In 1890 he executed the large painting Les Émigrants belges, nowadays in the collection of the Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp. It shows Belgian emigrants leaving to seek fortune across the Atlantic, in the United States. With painting L’Exode des Anversois (The Exodus from Antwerp) van Engelen returns to a similar topic, but with a more dramatic touch.

Provenance: a Flemish family who experienced the first months of the World War I and the exodus

 

The Exodus from Antwerp is a dramatic genre scene that brings the tumultuous history of Belgium at the beginning of the WWI to life. This painting is of real museum quality. On 4 August 1914, Germany violated the neutrality of Belgium and invaded the country. After weeks of resistance, Antwerp capitulated in October. On 8 October 1914, a large crowd was fleeing their Antwerp homes, fearing bombardments. They borrowed the mobile bridge built by the Belgian army to reach the other river bank of the Scheldt. Louis van Engelen, still attached to the epic, narrative style depicted a striking large-scale population movement, mingling people of all ages, all classes. Hunted and crowded on the paths they took animals, luggage and food with them.

With a keen sense of observation, Louis van Engelen has an intensive use of greens, blues and greys which envelops the scene in a melancholic atmosphere. Without succumbing to the temptation of blurry representations, the background is represented according to the impressionist technique; the high tower suggests the Notre-Dame Cathedral overlooking the city. In the foreground, various characters stand out: a mother and her two well dressed daughters, an elder upper class lady holding carefully her little dog in her arms while her maid carries the suitcase. Behind them a cart with a young woman nursing a baby. Before them an elder upper class couple with their daughter holding a leather travelling bag, and lower class people i.a. a mother with her little child on the arm accompanied by her young daughter, a grandmother with a young boy carrying a bundle of their belongings over his shoulder. These figures are treated with realism and a pictorial impeccable taste, inherited from the Flemish painters of the Golden Age. This painting shows an admirable realism with restrained emotion.

The website RKD NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR ART HISTORY shows a black and white reproduction of the painting mentioning the French and Flemish titles L’Exode des Anversois - De Vlucht der Antwerpenaren  8 October 1914 (meaning both The Exodus from Antwerp 8 October 1914.

1915

Oil on canvas

Signed and dated lower right Louis van Engelen. XX. 2015.

H. 130 cm, W. 245 cm

Museum: Antwerp

 

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 5) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 124; Pas, W. & G. (vol. 2) (2000), ARTO 2000 Biografisch Lexicon Plastische Kunst in België. Schilders Beeldhouwers Grafici 1830-2000, Antwerpen: De Gulden Roos, p. 472; Website RKD NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR ART HISTORY https://rkd.nl/nl/explore/images/224693.



Alle corse (At the horse-racing track)

Renato Berti (or René Ribet)
(Italian, Padua 1884-1939)

Alle corse (At the horse-racing track)
Renato Berti (or René Ribet)
(Italian, Padua 1884-1939)

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Renato Berti is also known by his pseudonym René Ribet. He was an Italian painter, engraver and drawer. He’s known for portraits, still life, land- and cityscape paintings, horseracing scenes, illustrations of children's books and posters.

Renato Berti lived and was active in Italy and France. From ca. 1910 until 1938 he resided in Paris, where he was an associé of the Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1923 and a sociétaire in 1937. In 1938 he returned to Italy where he died in Vicenza (near Venice) the following year.

He exhibited in Naples, where he obtained a medal, and in Rome. But also in France he took part in many exhibitions: in Deauville, Douai, Neuilly and of course in Paris, his second hometown where he exhibited from 1911 until 1938 in the Salons of the Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

 

20th century

Italy

Oil on canvas

Not signed but depicted in the catalogue raisonné of his work by Amaduzzi  I. & Franzini E. (see literature)

H. 194 cm, W. 113,50 cm

 

Literature: Amaduzzi  I. & Franzini E. (auth.), Greenup, S. (ed.) (2007), Renato Berti. Un pittore italiano a Parigi 1884-1939, Milan: ET Edizioni, catalogue raisonné; Bénézit, E. (vol. 2) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 218.



Two paintings of the mountains surrounding lake Vilalpsee at nightfall

Auguste de Molin
(Suisse, 1821-1890)

Two paintings of the mountains surrounding lake Vilalpsee at nightfall
Auguste de Molin
(Suisse, 1821-1890)

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Painter Auguste de Molin was active in Switzerland and France, and specialised in landscapes, views of Île de France and hunting scenes. He studied under the French painter Victor Chavet (1882-1906). De Molin took part in the Salon de Paris between 1850 and 1872. Auguste de Molin is one of the few artists in Lausanne to have clearly participated in the Impressionist movement. He exhibited – together with 165 works realised by thirty artists such as Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas and Claude Monet – at the first impressionist exhibition at Nadar’s former studio at the Boulevard des Capucines in 1874. Nadar was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1820-1910), a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist and balloonist balloonistwho’s portraits make part of many great photograph collections. Nadar portrayed de Molin.

Auguste de Molin, was a good friend of F. Bocion; he also was a professor of painting and drawing in Lausanne (École Vinet et Collège Galliard (Vinet School and College Galliard).

He married Eliza Bell in Bradford (England) in 1869; the couple remained childless. The story goes that he was the lover of the famous actress of the Second French Empire, Cora Perl (cq. 1835-1886), when he was in Paris. Pushed by his family, he embarked for Java (1858-1860), on the Nicolas Césaire, a yacht of 60 tons. He narrated this journey in the publication Tour du Monde (World Tour) (Hachette). After his return, he moved to Paris, travelled to Marseille and Algeria; and finally returned home to Lausanne (1885?) to teach drawing. He owned a large collection of Impressionist paintings (which collection has been dispersed). His own work hasn’t been listed. 

 

19th century

Oil on canvas

Both paintings are unclearly signed

H. 88 cm, W. 108 cm

Museums: Neuchâtel, Rochefort

 

Vilalpsee is a lake in the Allgauer Alps near Tannheim in Tirol (Austria).

 

Sources: Bénézit, E. (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, vol. 9, p. 718 ; Schurr, G. (1979), Les Petits Maîtres de la peinture 1820-1920, valeur de demain, Paris: Les Éditions de l’Amateur, vol. 4.

 



Mystical hunting scene

Monogrammist SzB
(German, 19th – 20th centuries)

Mystical hunting scene
Monogrammist SzB
(German, 19th – 20th centuries)

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1943

Oil on canvas

Monogrammed SzB and dated 1943 at lower right

H. 115 cm, W. 116 cm



The Botanique – View of Brussels

E. Capesius
(Belgian, 19th – 20th century)

The Botanique – View of Brussels
E. Capesius
(Belgian, 19th – 20th century)

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Oil on canvas

Signed and dated 1880 lower left

H. 80 cm, W. 130 cm



Pensive little girl with a basket of roses in the garden

P. Van de Weghe
(Belgian, 19th - 20th century)

Pensive little girl with a basket of roses in the garden
P. Van de Weghe
(Belgian, 19th - 20th century)

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Oil on canvas

Signed P. Van de Weghe and dated 1922 at lower right

H. 68 cm, W. 201 cm



View of Rome

Etienne Bosch
(The Netherlands, 1863-1933)

View of Rome
Etienne Bosch
(The Netherlands, 1863-1933)

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Etienne Bosch was a painter of genre scenes and landscapes, aquarellist and engraver. Being an art student of the Academy of the Hague, he travelled through France, England and Italy. He exhibited at the Exposition universelle de Bruxelles in 1910.

This painting shows a view from the Tiber banks on the Ponte Sant'Angelo (St. Angel Bridge) and the St. Peter's basilica. This bridge, once the roman Pons Aelius (Bridge of Hadrian), was completed in 134 BCEby emperor Hadrian to span the Tiber from the city center to his newly constructed mausoleum, now the Castel Sant’Angelo. In the 17th century (1667-1669) Pope Clement IX instructed the architect and sculptor Bernini to transform the Pons Aelius. Bernini designed the ten angels carrying Jesus' symbols. The St. Peter's Dome or the Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano - constructed between 1506 and 1626 - is the burial site of St. Peter, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus, the first bishop of Rome. The painting still shows the houses built in front of the basilica. Since they were demolished in the 1920s, this canvas gives a nice historical view of this side of the city at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.

End of the 19th -  beginning of the 20th century

Oil on canvas

Signed at lower left

H. 75 cm, W. 99 cm

 

Museum: The Hague

Source: Bénézit, E., vol. 2, p. 587



Rocky island ‘Monacone’ in front of Capri

Albert Hubert
(Austrian, 1878 – 20th century)

Rocky island ‘Monacone’ in front of Capri
Albert Hubert
(Austrian, 1878 – 20th century)

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Albert Hubert mainly painted landscapes and still lifes.

 

Oil on canvas

Signed and dated 1905 lower left

H. 116 cm, W. 150 cm

 

Source: Bénézit, E. , vol. 7, p. 228



Faraglione in front of Capri

Albert Wenk
(German, 1863-1934)

Faraglione in front of Capri
Albert Wenk
(German, 1863-1934)

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Albert Wenk was a painter of (mainly) Mediterranean sea views (Capri, Sicily). He studied at the Antwerp and Düsseldorf Academies and when he attended the Karlsruhe Academy, he became a student of Gustav Schönleber (1851-1917).

 

Oil on canvas

Signed, dated 1911, city name München lower left

H. 83 cm, W. 108 cm

 

Source: Thieme, U., & Becker, F., vol. 35, p. 377-378



Water landscape

Charles Michel
Ref.: (French, 19th century)

Water landscape
Charles Michel
Ref.: (French, 19th century)

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Charles Michel painted landscapes. He studied under M. Suisse. Michel exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1866, 1869 and 1870.

 

Oil on canvas

Signed and dated 1852 at lower right

H. 97 cm, W. 142 cm

 

Source: Bénézit, E., vol. 9,  p.583



Woman with hat

Leopold Dietmann or Leo Diet
(Czechoslovakian, Prague 1857- Graz 1942)

Woman with hat
Leopold Dietmann or Leo Diet
(Czechoslovakian, Prague 1857- Graz 1942)

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Leopold Dietmann used the pseudonym Leo Diet. He was a versatile artist: (oil, aqarel, pastel) painter, engraver and illustrator of historical, oriental, religious and genre scenes, portraits, landscapes, book illustrations; cartographer and launcher of new ideas on art theory and technique; and a writer.

He started his career in the Army, where he was since 1879 an artillery lieutenant. During his training, he already followed lessons at the technical Militärakademie and studied art in Vienna. Later on, when he was in Prague, crown prince Rudolf nominated him and allowed him officially a long period of leave in order to complete his art studies. He choose to be trained partly in France (Paris) (1881-1882) and partly in Egypt (1882-1887). He was also the cartographer who made between 1883 and 1888 the first map of Egypt, Soudan and the Central African Republic of Tchad.

In Paris, the historical painting Nero with Agrippina’s dead body brought Diet great success. Also his in Egypt created oeuvre (ca. 60 pieces) was highly appreciated during the exhibition in the Österreichische Kunstverein in 1888.

He founded in 1889 the Salon der Zurückgewiesenen, which became the base for the Wiener Secession.

In 1894 he was appointed as professor at the Staatsgewerbeschule in Graz.

From 1895 on, the versatile artist Leo Diet launched also new ideas on art theory and technique. In fact, one of his discoveries was the Dietsche Dreieck (Diets' triangle configuration).

In 1906 he won the Österreichische Staatspreis. He wrote books such as Über die Kongruenz und das Kongruenzgefühl und über die graphische Darstellbarkeit körperlicher Objekte (Vienna, 1907).

Kunstsalon Pisko in Vienna organised in 1910 a retrospective Leo Diet exhibition (105 works).

 

1880s

Oil on canvas

Signed lower right

H. 50 cm, W. 83 cm

 

Museums: London; private collection in Zürich

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 4) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 572; Thieme, U., & Becker, F. (vol. 9) (1999), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, p. 252.



Young man reading at the Plantin-Moretus Museum

Jan C. Neervoort
(The Netherlands, 1863-1940)

Young man reading at the Plantin-Moretus Museum
Jan C. Neervoort
(The Netherlands, 1863-1940)

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Jan Neervoort was a realist painter with great expertise and a feeling for details. His is well known for the reproduction of material, stables, farm interiors, craftsmen’s workshops elaborated in dark colours, often in clair-obscur.

 

End of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century

Oil on panel

At lower right the dedication aan mijn vriend Hector Broeckx (for my friend Hector Broeckx) and the signature

At lower left the name of the museum Planteijn Moretus in Antwerp

H. 18 cm, W. 24 cm

 

Source: Pas, W. & G. - Arto 2000, vol. 2, p. 172



Bacchante with crown made of laurel and vine leaves

Jan Marie Constantin Van Beers
(Belgian, 1852-1925 or 1927)

Bacchante with crown made of laurel and vine leaves
Jan Marie Constantin Van Beers
(Belgian, 1852-1925 or 1927)

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Jan Marie Constantin Van Beers was the son of the poet Jan Van Beers (1821-1888). In the beginning of his career in the 1870s, he painted historical themes indebted to the Renaissance. In 1880, living in Paris, he started to specialise in genre scenes. He became very successful with his elegant genre paintings of frivolous Paris. Later on he concentrated on portraits. He painted for example a remarkable portrait of the famous Flemish composer Peter Benoit (1883). His portraits were sometimes ‘cruel’. And his oeuvre from time to time marred beauty by a kitschy postcard style. Therefore his work wasn’t always appreciated. Especially Huysmans criticized a painting he presented at the Salon de Paris in 1879: ‘Les démences de couleurs, des folies absurdes de conceptions, des méli-mélos d’antiquité et de moderne réunis sur une même toile’ (trad.: ‘Mad colours, crazy and absurd concepts, a mishmash of antiquity and modernity reunited by one painting’). Van Beers used the camera as a tool in the creative process of his work, like many artists did by the late 19th century. His most obvious application was in portraiture because he received many portrait orders from family or friends of deceased people and from people living at a (very) long distance. In order to create an accurate portrait, photography was of great help. At a certain point in his artistic career the technical precision of his oeuvre was so photo-realistic that he was accused by the critic L. Solvay of overpainting photographic images faintly developed on sensitized canvas. Van Beers reacted with a trial and ultimately, scientific research of his paintings proved that he was falsely accused. Van Beers worked with assistants in order to finish the long list of orders. He also understood that reproductions of his work by print publishers or by companies in combination with their brand name was lucrative business. He also illustrated books, such as L’Hiver mondain (1884) by the poet Georges Rodenbach (1855-1898) with portraits.


Van Beers started his artistic studies at the Antwerp Academy. In 1873 he travelled with his friend, the painter Alexandre Struys (1852-1941), to London. He moved in 1878 to Paris where he worked for some time in the studio of Alfred Stevens (1823-1906). From 1879 until 1881 the Belgian sculptor Jef Lambeaux (1852-1908) stayed in his residence in Paris. In 1884 he lived in the Impasse Hélène nr 15, Avenue de Clichy. He became part of the Parisian Beau Monde which lifestyle was reflected in his house that he decorated in a luxurious and exotic style. He was the host for many influential, prominent people and crowned heads.

Jan Van Beers took part in may exhibitions such as the Salons in Namen and in Gent (1874), Arte et Amicitiae in Amsterdam (1877), the Exposition universelle de Paris (1878), the Salons de Paris (1879, 1880), an exhibition in the Kursaal in Ostend (1883), the Cercle Artistique in Brussels and the Salon des Indépendants in Paris (1884), the Salon Parisien in Bondstreet in London (1885) and the Historische Tentoonstelling Belgische Kunst in Brussels.

 

End of the 19th century

Oil on panel

Signed higher left

H. 28 cm, W. 23 cm

 

Museums: Amsterdam, Saeftingen, Brussels, Antwerp, Tournai, Lier, Madrid, Rouen, Washington, Boston, Williamstown, Liverpool.

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 2) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 14; Pas, W. & G. (vol. 2) (2000),ARTO 2000 Biografisch Lexicon Plastische Kunst in België. Schilders Beeldhouwers Grafici 1830-2000, Antwerp: De Gulden Roos, p. 417; Thieme, U., & Becker, F. (vol. 3) (1999), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, p. 170.



Oriental man holding two snakes

Régine Jacqmain
(Belgian or French, 19th – 20th century)

Oriental man holding two snakes
Régine Jacqmain
(Belgian or French, 19th – 20th century)

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End of the 19th – early 20th century

Oil on canvas

Signed at lower left

H 80 cm, W. 65 cm



Artists, scientists and craftsmen

Louis Auguste Chevalier
(French, ca. 1865 - 20th century)

Artists, scientists and craftsmen
Louis Auguste Chevalier
(French, ca. 1865 - 20th century)

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Louis Auguste Chevalier was a painter of landscapes, marines with an iridescent range of colours and (monumental) murals.

He studied under the famous orientalist painter and sculptor Jean-Leon Gérôme (1824-1904).

This painting was influenced by Classicism and depicts a scene with 7 men: a painter, an orator, a sculptor, a politician, an alchemist, a writer (?) and a blacksmith. This painting is probably a preliminary study for a large mural.

     

Second part of the 19h century

Oil on canvas

Signed at lower right

H. 32 cm, W. 71 cm

 

Museum: Isle-Adam

Source: Bénézit, E., vol. 3, p. 574



Primitive hunting scene


(German, end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century)

Primitive hunting scene

(German, end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century)

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Symbolist work

Oil on canvas

Unsigned

H. 43, W. 122 cm



The Beach at Scheveningen

John Michaux
(Belgian, 1876-1956)

The Beach at Scheveningen
John Michaux
(Belgian, 1876-1956)

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John Michaux was a Post-Impressionist drawer and painter who used oil, water colour and gouache techniques. His work shows landscapes, marines, beach scenes and compositions. During the First World War, Michaux spent time in London, where he was fascinated by the work of the English artist J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) and the the American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). This was to have a great influence on his own oeuvre. Michaux painted views of the River Scheldt and the landscape of the Kempen area, employing a powerful palette in highly expressive images. His pre-war work – views of the Scheldt and seascapes – were largely destroyed during the First World War.

Michaux trained at Antwerp’s Academy and National Higher Institute for Fine Arts under Frans Hens (1856-1928). He was a member of the group of artists known as Als Ik Kan and also taught at the School of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp.

According to the above mentioned typical expressive Michaux-style, this painting is a rather atypical Michaux-work.

 

Oil on panel

Signed at lower left and entitled Strand Scheveningen

H. 94 cm, W. 100 cm

 

Museums: Antwerp, Ixelles

Sources:Bénézit, E., vol. 9 , p. 582; Pas, W. & G., vol. 2 , p. 141



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