"The Prisoner" Painting

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"The Prisoner" Painting

About the Item

Alexander Struys was a Belgian history, interiors, genre and portrait oil and aquarel painter, and etcher. In the beginning of his career, influenced by the painters Jan Van Beers en Henri Jacques Bource, he created romantic scenes, but after his professional career in Weimar (1877-1882), he specialised in particular socially inspired genre scenes of the poor and their misery, their sorrows in the naturalist and realistic style. These themes reflect the rather dark, gloomy, pathetic tone of his work. His father - originally from Holland - was a master glass painter. At the age of six, Struys was already a student (1858-1862) at the Academy of Dordrecht in the Netherlands under Johannes Rutten (1809-1884). From 1864 until 1871, he studied under Polydore Beaufaux (1829-1905) and Jozef Van Lerius (1823-1875) at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Antwerpen (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) in Antwerp. In 1897 he became a member of this Antwerp academy. He was a friend of a.o. painter and etcher Piet Verhaert (1852-1908), the sculptor Jef Lambeaux (1852-1908) and painter Jan Van Beers (1852-1927). From 1871 on, he exhibited at the Salon in Ghent, at the Salon de Paris and later on at the Salon des Artistes Français. He received a Médaille d’Or in 1899 and a Grand Prix in 1900 at the Exposition Universelle. He travelled with Jan Van Beers to France and England (London), where they tried to sell their paintings, but they didn’t make enough money and were forced to return to Belgium. Struys worked during a short period together with painter Henri Jacques Bource (1826-1899). Bource was a painter of landscapes, marines and portraits, but his favorite themes where the scenes from the everyday life of fisherman and their families. Struys’ anti-clerical painting, Birds of Prey, created a scandal in 1876. In 1877, he became professor at the Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule Weimar (Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School), he followed in the footsteps of his fellow Belgian colleagues, Charles Verlat (1824-1890) – who had been appointed in 1866 as the Weimar school’s director – and Ferdinand Pauwels (1830-1904) – from 1862 to 1872 professor of historical painting at the same school. One of Struys’ students was Christian Rohlfs (1849-1939), a German painter who became one of the important representatives of German Expressionism. Struys occupied this position until 1882, the year he moved to The Hague (Netherlands) where he was active as a portrait painter for two years, until he returned to Belgium. Because Struys didn’t have a studio, he painted in the homes of the poor people he depicted. His work attracted much attention and praise in the more socially conscious publications of that time. He became a close friend of the Dutch-Flemish painter Jacob Smits (1855-1928), who’s work was very strongly – due to his own life – involved with social issues. Some critics at the time referred to him as the ’painter of misery and pain’. Struys settled in 1883 in Malines and became head of the Malines’ Royal Drawing Academy. In 1902, he joined the administrative commission for the ninth exhibition organised by the Société des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles. In 1905 he became vice-president of the Société Royale des Beaux-Arts. That same year, he was in charge of the preparations of the Exposition Rétrospective de l'Art Belge (Retrospective Belgian Art Exhibition), one of the events to celebrate Belgium’s 75th anniversary. He was (since 1897) also a member of the Académie Royale de Belgique (Royal Belgian Academy) and the Institut de France (French Institute) in Paris, grouping five academies of which the Académy Française (French Academy) is the most famous. Oil on canvas. Signed at lower left Alexander Struys. Measures: H 137 cm, W 99 cm. Museums: Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Liège, Malines, Tournai, Dordrecht, Wartburg, Weimar, Philadelphia. Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 13) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 320; Pas, W. & G. (vol. 2) (2000), ARTO 2000 Biografisch Lexicon Plastische Kunst in België. Schilders Beeldhouwers Grafici 1830-2000, Antwerpen: De Gulden Roos, p. 370.

Creator:
Alexander Theodore Honoré Struys 1 (Painter)
Dimensions:
Height: 53.94 in (137.01 cm)Width: 38.98 in (99.01 cm)Depth: 2.76 in (7.02 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Painted
Place of Origin:
Belgium
Period:
Late 19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
Late 19th Century
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Brussels & Antwerp, BE
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU95165712583