Jozef Janssens

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Jozef Marie Aloys Janssens de Varebeke (born May 29, 1854 in Sint-Niklaas , East Flanders Province , Belgium ; † June 29, 1930 in Antwerp ) was a Belgian history and portrait painter .

Life

Jesus sterft aan het kruis , excerpt from Janssens' Stations of the Cross cycle The Seven Sorrows of Mary in the Cathedral of Our Lady Antwerp
Fritz Mayer van den Bergh , 1901
Petrus-Ludovicus Stillemans as Dome of Honor to St. Bavo , 1906
Antoon Stillemans , Bishop of Ghent, 1916

Janssens was the eldest child of the industrialist and Belgian member of the Catholic Party Theodoor Petrus Franciscus Janssens (1825-1889) and his wife Marie-Angélique, née Beeckman (1834-1889), born into an art-loving family. His father, who drew himself, was friends with the painters Jan Swerts and Godefried Guffens as a lover of church art . After finishing high school in his hometown, Janssens attended the Jesuit college at Bleijenbeek Castle in Bergen (Limburg) . When his father was visited by the Düsseldorf painters Franz Ittenbach and Karl Müller in 1872 and they took the opportunity to inspect his early drawings, they encouraged him to take up painting training. After graduating from high school, Janssens first worked in his father's factory. At the same time, he was instructed by Swerts. When he left Antwerp to become director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague , Janssens moved to Ittenbach's studio in Düsseldorf in October 1873 . He stayed there until October 1874. During this time, he associated with painters Ernst Deger and Franz Cremer, among others . The following year he was instructed by Guffens in Brussels . In the autumn of 1876 Janssens moved to Rome , where he became a student of Ludwig Seitz through Ittenbach's mediation . His stay there coincided with the studies of his brother Henri Janssens (Benedictine religious name Laurentius , 1855-1925) at the Pontifical Gregorian University . From Rome Janssens repeatedly visited the Abbey of Montecassino , where he met Desiderius Lenz , the founder of the Beuron art school , and his friends Gabriel Wüger and Lukas Steiner , who were busy painting the torretta there at the time . In the late summer of 1880 Janssen completed his stay in Italy, which was interrupted by occasional visits to his home country. In 1884 he settled in Antwerp as a painter. His wife Marie Lucie, née Hye-Hoys (1866–1950), gave birth to eight children. His grave is on the Schoonselhof in Antwerp.

Janssens contributed to the design of a number of church buildings with panel and wall paintings , for example for the Jesuit Church of Leuven , the Beguine Monastery in Ghent , the Maredsous Abbey near Namur , the Churches of St. Joseph and St. Willibrord and the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp (1903– 1910). Janssens also created a number of portraits of clergymen, for example portraits of Popes Leo XIII. and Pius X. (1904), the Archbishop of Mechelen Désiré-Joseph Mercier , the Ghent Bishop Antoon Stillemans (1916) and his brother, the priest Petrus-Ludovicus Stillemans (1906). He also portrayed the Catholic politician and minister Joris Helleputte and the art collector Fritz Mayer van den Bergh (1901). Janssens took part in various exhibitions in Munich , in 1905 he exhibited at the Liège World Exhibition . During the First World War Janssens lived as a refugee in Manchester , where he made his living as a portrait painter. In 1916 his portraits of the nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford and his daughter Eileen were created there.

In 1904 Pius X awarded him the New Year's Eve . In 1905 he became a member of the Antwerp Academy and in 1906 of the Royal Commission for Monuments.

literature

  • Jozef Janssens . In: Die christliche Kunst , 8th year (1911), No. 1, pp. 1–13 ( digitized version ).
  • Guy Janssens de Varebeke: Un maître du portrait: Joseph Janssens de Varebeke (1854-1930) . In: Le Parchemin , No. 415 (May / June 2015), pp. 322–328.

Web links

Commons : Jozef Janssens de Varebeke  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Stations of the Cross in Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Antwerp)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bettina Baumgärtel , Sabine Schroyen, Lydia Immheiser, Sabine Teichgröb: Directory of foreign artists. Nationality, residence and studies in Düsseldorf . In: Bettina Baumgärtel (Hrsg.): The Düsseldorf School of Painting and its international impact 1819–1918 . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86568-702-9 , Volume 1, p. 433
  2. ↑ Josef Janssens: The Seven Sorrows of Mary. Painting cycle in the cathedral in Antwerp . Society for Christian Art, Munich 1909
personal data
SURNAME Janssens, Jozef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Janssens de Varebeke, Jozef Marie Aloys (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian history and portrait painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Sint-Niklaas , East Flanders Province , Belgium
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 1930
Place of death Antwerp