Jan Van Beers
The Beautiful Maiden
1875

Name: The Beautiful Maiden
Brand: Jan Van Beers
Price: 13631.69 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Jean Marie Constantin Joseph (Jan) VAN BEERS Oil on Panel Panel Size: 32 x 24" (81 x 62cm) Outside frame Size: 38 x 33" (97 x 83cm) Van Beers (1852 - 1927) studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Soon afterwards, he became the leader of a group of young artists, the "Van Beers clique." This group included the artists Piet Verhaert (1852–1908), Alexander Struys (1852–1941), and Jef Lambeaux (1852–1908). They were well known for their mischievous and eccentric behaviour, including walking around Antwerp dressed in historic costumes. These eccentricities aside, several art critics had been emphasizing the technical skills of Van Beers, comparing them to those of the Old Masters. In 1878 Van Beers moved to Paris, and he started to work in the studio of his fellow Belgian painter Alfred Stevens. In Paris he immediately abandoned historical pictures, producing instead genre and portrait works of the middle classes and developing a successful line in attractive draped young ladies reading a letter or a book or day-dreaming about a lover. His subjects were painted in a highly-finished Naturalist style. He painted very small pictures, delicately brushed, hyper-realistic in their details and extreme finish. Success was almost immediate. However, at the Brussels Salon of 1881, Van Beers found himself amid a scandal that would upset the Belgian art world and, at the same time, give him instant recognition. He exhibited two paintings at the Brussels Salon of that year, both painted in his new, miniature-like and hyperrealistic style. One of the works, The yacht 'Sirene,' was to become the subject of the turmoil. He was accused to have pushed his realistic style beyond the boundaries of the possible. The Belgian critics Solvay and De Mons suspected him to have painted over a photograph, calling his work a photo-peinture. While the Review L' Art Moderne defended him by suggesting that those were merely echoing comments of some artists who were jealous of Van Beers' commercial success, the scandal nonetheless raised considerable attention. Van Beers decided to react promptly. He offered to have both his paintings scraped off and checked by experts . If they could discover even the most remote trace of the use of photography, Van Beers would pay them 10 000 francs for Lily, his second exhibition piece, and 20 000 francs for La Sirene, the prices he was asking for them. On the other hand, if they couldn't find anything, the critics were to pay this amount to the Caisse de recours (a pension fund) of the Brussels artists. The critics refused the challenge, arguing that Van Beers just had to recognize his mistake. Then, on September 3, 1881, during the short absence of the guards at the Salon, an unknown person vandalized the Sirene by scratching off the face of the young woman. Immediately the painting attracted even more attention and crowds of visitors, who wanted to check by themselves if any trace of photography was visible. Van Beers took this opportunity to name a commission to examine the painting. It included the president of the Cercle Artistique et Littéraire of Brussels, the artists Charles Verlat and J.F. Portaels, and two specialists in photography and chemistry. After a thorough examination the commission's report cleared Van Beers of all charges and concluded that he was "an honest man." L'affaire Van Beers" gave him Europe-wide attention. Previously a largely unknown artist, Van Beers was able to use his newfound fame to sell his work for large sums. Van Beers said that he wanted to paint what he saw and what were the best and most interesting things that one saw in Paris. He explained in an 1893 interview for the Westminster Budget that "all my pictures are from models, and I know where to find them whenever I want them. It requires a good deal of diplomacy to get them to pose. One has to pet and coax them, and even then they often leave you in the lurch." Vanity Fair showed him with a typical subject in their 1891 caricature titled "The Modern Wiertz" (Antoine Wiertz, 1806–65). Museum and Gallery Holdings Amsterdam: Funeral of Charles the Good Antwerp (Koninklijk Mus. voor Schone Kunsten): Peter Benoit, Director of the Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp (1883, oil on panel); The Painter’s Parents (oil on canvas); Lady in White (oil on panel); Fallen Star (1874, oil on canvas); Henri Rochefort (oil on panel); Jacob van Maerlant on His Deathbed (1879, oil on panel); Maerlant Presiding over the Liberation of Flanders from Breydel and Corninck; William of Jülich; Saeftingen; Emperor Karel as a Child (1879, oil on canvas, triptych) Boston (MFA): Portrait of a Man (oil on panel) Brighton (Mus. and AG): Lady of the Directoire (1889, oil on panel) Brussels (Mus. Royaux des Beaux-Arts): Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt (1888, oil on panel) Madrid: Peasant Woman from the Ambères Region Milking a Cow Rouen: Parisian Woman Washington DC (Nat. Portrait Gal.): Charles Tyson Yerkes (oil on panel)

Creator:

Jan Van Beers (1852 - 1927, Belgian)

Creation Year:

1875

Dimensions:

Height: 38 in (96.52 cm)Width: 33 in (83.82 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)

Medium:

Oil

Movement & Style:

French School

Period:

1870-1879