Louis Artan
Louis Victor Antonio Artan de Saint-Martin (born April 20, 1837, The Hague , † May 23, 1890 Oostduinkerke (now part of Koksijde )) was a Dutch - Belgian painter of Realism and Impressionism .
Origin and early years
Artan came from a noble family with artistic inclinations. His father was an officer and wing adjutant to Prince Wilhelm Friedrich Karl of Orange-Nassau . The family lived near Elsene in Belgium and took Belgian citizenship in 1842 . In the same year his father died, little Louis spent his childhood alternately in Brussels and in the seaside resort of Spa .
The early years
He began military training, but left the army at the age of twenty. He spent the following years in the Ardennes , where he made numerous landscape and nature sketches. Here he met the landscape painters Edouard Delvaux (1806-1862) and Henri-Joseph Marcette (1824-1890). He spent the winter of 1858 in Paris , where he made the acquaintance of the pioneers of French Impressionism, Gustave Courbet and Camille Corot , and the French marine painter Eugène Boudin . Œvres from the Seine , the surroundings of Fontainebleau and Barbizon date from this period .
In 1860 he returned to Spa. In 1861 he married Elisabeth Gavage , the young couple first settled in Elsene, where in 1863 he met Louis Dubois , an early proponent of realism. Through him he also met the landscape painter Hippolyte Boulenger , with whom he undertook studies in the Forêt de Soignes / Zoniënwoud near Tervuren . Various landscape paintings in realistic style and subtle coloring date from this period.
Back in the Netherlands, Artan worked in Breskens , Vlissingen and Terneuzen . In 1864, when he got into financial hardship, he finally turned painting into a profession. He spent that year with Henri Van der Hecht , who also introduced him to the Cercle Artistique et Littéraire .
The discovery of the sea
He spent 1867/68 in Brittany , on the Belgian and French North Sea coasts; from Blankenberge, Belgium, he explored the North Sea coast, the Scheldt and the English Channel . In the Breton period his predilection for seascapes became increasingly evident. In a subtle way he succeeded in conveying the play of the sun and the clouds in the water with playful, daring color shades. In 1868 he was co-founder of the Société Libre des Beaux-Arts . Its aim was to defend modern painting against the overwhelming power of the artistic views of the academies and salons; The members included Artan, Théodore Baron , Charles de Groux , Louis Dubois , Constantin Meunier , E. Smits, C. Van Camp, Alfred Verwee and Jean-Baptiste Robie ; Gustave Courbet was made an honorary member. Its mouthpiece was the magazine L'art libre from 1871 , which, however, had to stop its publication in 1872.
On the initiative of Félicien Rops , Louis Artan also co-founded the Société Internationale des Aquafortistes in 1869 .
He spent the years 1869 to 1872 in Heist and again in Blankenberge on the Belgian coast.
Turning to impressionism
Louis Artan lived temporarily in Antwerp in 1873/74 . Here he joined the circle of young painters around Isidore Meyers , Jan Stobbaerts , Henri de Braekeleer , Adrien-Joseph Heymans and Florent Crabeels, who were also in conflict with traditional academic painting and especially with Nicaise de Keyser , the director of the Antwerp Art Academy on. He finally broke with academic painting and increasingly brought impressionistic features into his seascapes.
With Félicien Rops he shared a studio in Paris in 1875 , and at the same time he set up in Berck-sur-Mer in northern France; Many of his most outstanding works date from this period.
From 1880 he finally turned to impressionism. He was fascinated by the aspect of the fleeting in his environment and increasingly focused his painterly on the effects of light and shadow.
In 1881 he was - along with Théodore Baron Bouvier, Alphonse Asselberghs and Adrien Joseph Heymans Knight of the Order of Leopold appointed two years later (1883), his works were presented at the World Exhibition of Amsterdam awarded a gold medal.
He spent the last years of his life in De Panne . He set up a former customs house as a studio, which he immortalized in a picture Mon atelier à La Panne . This picture is considered to be one of his best works; it was in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent, but was destroyed.
Louis Artan died of flu on May 23, 1890 - only 53 years old - in Oostduinkerke and was buried there. The tomb erected over his grave in 1895 was designed by Victor Horta . He was also an avowed Freemason and belonged to the Les Amis Philanthropes nº 1 lodge in Brussels.
reception
Along with Hippolyte Boulenger and Guillaume Vogels, Louis Artan is counted among the best Belgian realistic landscape painters of the second half of the 19th century, as a pioneer of Flemish Impressionism, who renewed the expressiveness of the pictorial atmosphere with his unique use of color. Together with Théodore Baron he represents the connection between the school of Tervuren , the school of Kalmthout and the school of Dendermonde . During his lifetime he was considered one of the best marine painters.
Works by Louis Artan can be found in the following museums ...
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Antwerp
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels
- Musée d'Art Moderne in Brussels
- Museum voor Schone Kunsten Ghent
- Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art contemporain de la Ville de Liège (MAMAC)
- Nationaal Visserijmuseum, Oostduinkerke
- Mu.ZEE (Kunstmuseum aan zee), Ostend
exhibited, but the majority of his paintings are in private collections. His works are particularly valued in countries closely related to the sea such as the Netherlands, Belgium and England.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Louis Artan's grave in the Oostduinkerke cemetery ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Emmanuel Bénézit : Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et graveurs. Paris, Librairie Gründ 1976, ISBN 2-7000-0153-2 (French)
- Norbert Hostyn: Vlaamse schilderkunst en de zee. (PDF; 12.7 MB)
- Danny Lannoy, Frieda Devinck, Thérèse Thomas: Impressionists in Knocke & Heyst (1870–1914). Oostkamp, Stichting Kunstboek 2007, ISBN 978-90-5856-247-0 (nl.)
- Vera Lewijse: De wereld van Louis Artan de Saint Martin. The Hague 1837-Oostduinkerke 1890. Brussels, Onuitgegeven licentiaatsthesis Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Promoter Prof. Dr. Annie Reniers 2001-2002. (nl.)
- Francis Carette, Herwig Todts, Vera Lewijse: Natures de Peintres - sign signature: Boulanger - Artan - Rops - De Braekeleer - Vogels - Ensor. Exhibition catalog. Brussels 2005. (French)
- Herman De Vilder: De School van Tervuren in de bedding van de tijd. Tervure, self-published by De Vrienden van de School van Tervuren 2008, ISBN 978-90-805835-04 (nl.)
- J. Turner and Thomas Bernadette: Louis Artan. In: Grove Dictionary of Art. Oxford, Oxford University Press 1996 (2nd, exp.), ISBN 0-19-517068-7 (English)
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Artan, Louis |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Artan de Saint-Martin, Louis Victor Antonio |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian-Dutch painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 20, 1837 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | The hague |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 23, 1890 |
| Place of death | Oostduinkerke |