Pieter Van Huffel

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Pieter Van Huffel

Pieter Van Huffel , also Pierre Guillaume Jean van Huffel and Peter van Huffel (born August 17, 1769 in Geraardsbergen , † August 12, 1844 in Ghent ) was a Belgian portrait and history painter and industrialist .

Life

Pieter Van Huffel was born in 1769 to Ambroise-François Van Huffel and Caroline Sergeant. He received his first drawing training from his uncle Pierre Canivé, a painter and restorer in his hometown. Courses at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent followed. Here he won first prizes in 1786 and 1788. He then spent seven years in Antwerp and Mechelen with the painter Willem Jacob Herreyns (1743–1827). In 1798 he spent a few months in Paris, specifically studying by copying the old masters in the Louvre . For a short time he also worked here in Jacques-Louis David's studio .

After his student years, Pieter Van Huffel settled in Ghent. He was represented for the first time at the Salon in Ghent in 1796 with two religious works "The dying Jesus Christ" and "Sainte Agnes". He then exhibited there regularly until 1832. In 1805 he was appointed artistic director and in 1814 professor at the Academy in Ghent. In 1811 he was appointed permanent president of the Société des Arts in Ghent, which he had founded in 1808 with other artists. In 1810 he was appointed curator of the art museum there by the mayor of Ghent.

During the French occupation of Ghent (1795-1815) he was also active as an entrepreneur. In 1810 he opened his own cotton mill on the "Gentse Oude Vest". One of the first steam engines for the Ghent cotton industry was installed in his factory. The spinning mill was later continued by his sons-in-law. Today the buildings house the Museum of Industrial Archeology and Textiles (MIAT) Ghent. After 1815 he was also active in local politics, between 1817 and 1824 as a Ghent councilor.

Van Huffel made several works for the private chapel of the Princess of Orange, Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna , in The Hague . In June 1819 he received a visit from the Dutch princes Wilhelm von Oranien-Nassau and Anna Pawlowna in his studio . He was appointed honorary painter to the future Queen of the Netherlands. At the same time he became a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague.

Pieter Van Huffel's oeuvre consisted mainly of portraits and historical motifs; he also produced several Christian-religious works for various churches in Ghent. Van Huffel died in 1844 a few days before his 75th birthday.

family

Pieter van Huffel was married to Marie-Antoinette Van Damme since 1797 and the couple had four children:

  • Flavie-Mélanie (1799–1872), married to Louis Ceuterick
  • Marie-Camille-Caroline (1801–1881), married to Pierre-Eugène-Charles Guéquier
  • Eugène-Barthélémy-Charles (1803-1859), married to Ida-Marie De Ruyck
  • Gabrielle-Joséphine (1806–1888), married to Napoléon-Liévin-Bernard de Pauw

Works (selection)

  • Portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte , 1807, as the first consul of the French Republic
  • Portrait of Johann Heinrich von Frankenberg , 1793, cardinal in Mechelen
  • Portrait of Maurice de Broglie , 1808, bishop in Ghent
  • Portrait of Fallot de Beaumont , 1813, bishop in Ghent
  • Portrait of John Quincy Adams , 1815, an American diplomat and later sixth President of the United States
  • Het bezoek van de latere koning Willem II. (1792–1849) aan de textielfabriek van Jan Rosseel in Ghent , 1817
    The visit of the future King Willem II in the textile factory of Jan Russeel in Ghent
  • Voorstelling van de H. Maagd in den tempel , 1817, Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple , awarded the gold medal of the Ghent Academy in 1817
  • Several pictures for the private chapel of Grand Duchess Anna Pawlowna in The Hague, including: de Engel Gabriël , Maria , Moeder Gods , Christus met Kruis , Maria Magdalena , Simeon met het Christuskind , Mozes (all 1818/19)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Het Museum voor Industriële Archeologie en Textiel te Gent (PDF 11.9 MB) In: OKV OPENBAAR KUNSTBEZIT IN VLAANDEREN , 1999/1
  2. ^ Catalog du Musée royal des beaux-arts d'Anvers . Buschmann, Antwerpen 1857, pp. 170–171 ( limited preview in Google book search)
  3. ^ Illustration at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC
  4. ^ Illustration at the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie
personal data
SURNAME Huffel, Pieter Van
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Huffel, Pierre Guillaume Jean Van; Huffel, Peter Van
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian portrait and history painter and industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1769
PLACE OF BIRTH Geraardsbergen
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1844
Place of death Ghent