Oil painting, 'View on the Scheldt', Louis Pulinckx, 1875

The marshy borders of the river Scheldt bordered by dense trees; a small sailboat with lowered sails in the middle ground and two boats sailing in background, a village and church spire visible in distance at left

Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon

Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon, 1886
Joshua Dixon (1811-1885), was the son of Abraham Dixon of Whitehaven and brother of George Dixon (who was head of the foreign merchants firm of Rabone Brothers in Birmingham 1883-98). Educated at Leeds Grammar School, and was deputy chairman of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company 1869-70. Died Winslade, near Exeter, 7 December 1885. Bequeathed all his collection of drawings, watercolours and oil paintings to the Bethnal Green Museum; they have since been transferred to the V&A. He also collected engravings, Japanese vases and panels, and bronze and marble sculpture.

Ref: Parkinson, Ronald, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, (Victoria & Albert Museum, HMSO, London, 1990), p.xx.

Historical significance: Louis Pulinckx (1843-after 1901) is a little known Beligain landscape painter, born in Antwerp, but trained in Paris as a pupil of Corot. He subsequently worked in both France and Belgium. In 1874 he exhibited in London, and in 1875 at the Exposition générale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles. Following his master, his favourite subjects are forests and rivers, but he also produced figure paintings, genres scenes and pictures of animals. Pulinckx's training with Corot is evident in his evocations of sylvan scenery, such as this one, often illuminated by passages of water - lakes, rivers and ponds, which catch and hold reflections of the sky and the cloudscapes above. He painted primarily naturalistic depictions of the Belgian and French countryside on the fringes of woodland, in whcih light filters between tall tree trunks. Here the extreme flatness of the countryside appears to be Flemish rather than French, with a small village and church spire visible at left. The boats floating in calm waters in an early evening light beneath give a Romantic cast to the scene.

Landscape paintings were extremely popular during the 17th century and increasingly encompassed a variety of forms and genres. Netherlandish painters in particular were inspired to paint nature, both their familiar surroundings as well as more exotic locales, the most popular being Italy. In the early 1600s, innovative contributions to landscape paintings were made, especially by the marine painters who concentrated on the changing effects of light according to atmospheric conditions and perspective and had a considerable impact on the appearance of landscape painting. Towards the end of the 17th century, a shift in taste is detected in favour of more academic and classical landscapes inspired by Italianate paintings and often employed as settings for mythological or historical subjects. However by the end of the 18th and the first half of the19th centuries, Netherlandish artists returned to 17th century landscape traditions and imitated the great painters of the Golden Age. This trend flourished in particular with the Hague school (1870-90) before coming to an end with the beginning of the Impressionism.

The marshy borders of the river Scheldt bordered by dense trees; a small sailboat with lowered sails in the middle ground and two boats sailing in background, a village and church spire visible in distance at left. Louis Pulinckx (1843-after 1901) is a little known Beligain landscape painter, born in Antwerp, but trained in Paris as a pupil of Corot. He subsequently worked in both France and Belgium. Following his master, his favourite subjects are forests and rivers, but he also produced figure paintings, genres scenes and pictures of animals. Pulinckx's training with Corot is evident in his evocations of sylvan scenery, such as this one, often illuminated by passages of water - lakes, rivers and ponds, which catch and hold reflections of the sky and the cloudscapes above. He painted primarily naturalistic depictions of the Belgian and French countryside on the fringes of woodland, in whcih light filters between tall tree trunks. Here the extreme flatness of the countryside appears to be Flemish rather than French. The boats floating in calm waters in an early evening light beneath give a Romantic cast to the scene.

1075-1886