The Dahesh Museum of Art
September 26, 2013
Sheep on the Coast, Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven; 1878
STEVEN T. writes:
I discovered this website today, and I just had to inform you of it. “The Dahesh Museum of Art is the only institution in the United States devoted to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting works by Europe’s academically trained artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Dahesh serves a diverse audience by placing these artists in the broader context of 19th-century visual culture, and by offering a fresh appraisal of the role academies played in reinvigorating the classical ideals of beauty, humanism, and skill.”
I believe that you would enjoy this immensely, as will I.
Laura writes:
Thank you. There is so much great art on the Internet.
The painting above, Sheep on the Coast, by the Belgian artist Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven is the featured artwork of the month at the museum in New York City and the website has this very good description:
Born in to a poor family of artists, Verboeckhoven rose to international prominence in the field of animal painting, so widely recognized that he was sometimes hired to add animals to the landscapes of other artists. His father, Barthélémy, a sculptor of neoclassical figures and animals, was his first master. He studied with the Ghent sculptor Albert Voituron, but decided to devote himself to painting. In 1822, soon after his debut at the Ghent Salon, he was commissioned to paint an equestrian portrait of King William I, ruler of the newly formed kingdom of the Netherlands. His career was now secure, and his works, which recalled those of the 17th-century Dutch animal painter Paulus Potter, were widely acclaimed and collected. By 1880, 44 of the Belgian’s canvases were known to hang in the private collections of wealthy Americans, who undoubtedly found his pictures of livestock in peaceful surroundings particularly appealing. Although his paintings were studio creations, the remarkable realism of his animals was the result of direct observation. Bathed in a golden light, the pristine clarity of each strand of wool and blade of grass in Sheep on the Coast reveals Verboeckhoven’s sculptural training.
