Physical description
In a garden with flowers and fruit trees, a young woman bends over a row of cabbages; in the background are houses with brick-red roofs.
Place of Origin
Antwerp, Belgium (painted)
Date
ca. 1864 (painted)
Artist/maker
Braekeleer, Henri de, born 1840 - died 1888 (painter (artist))
Materials and Techniques
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Height: 47.6 cm estimate, Width: 58.4 cm estimate, Height: 77 cm frame dimensions, Width: 88 cm frame dimensions
Object history note
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides, 1900. Bought before 1881 by Constantine Alexander Ionides and valued by himself £150 at this date. An etching after the painting, La Coupeuse de Choux was also part of the Ionides bequest (CAI 566).
Ref: Basil S. Long, Catalogue of the Constantine Alexander Ionides collection.Vol. 1, Paintings in oil, tempera and water-colour, together with certain of the drawings, London : Printed under the authority of the Board of Education, 1925.
C. Monkhouse, ‘The Constantine Ionides Collection’ in Magazine of Art, vii, 1884, pp. 36-44, 208-214.
The collection formed by Constantine Ionides includes works of a wide variety of schools, periods and artists. His collection includes Old Masters, 17th century works, contemporary British works and French 19th century works. Constantine formed friendships with artists of the day, especially Legros, who, having spent 17 years in Britain, became a naturalise British citizen. Constantine proved a stable and generous buyer of Legros work, while Legros, in turn, became an advisor in the matters of art to the attentive Constantine. Under the influence of Legros Constantine developed a keen interest in French 19th century paintings purchasing works by Delacroix, Degas, Millet and Rousseau.
Constantine’s plans concerning his collection conformed to a more ‘public-welfare’ vein of thought than his father or brother. He decided to donate his collection to the Victoria & Albert Museum, instead of privately distributing it or disposing of it in a Sales room.
His will states:
'All my pictures both in oil and water colors and crayon or colored chalks (but subject as to my family portraits to the interest herein before given to my said Wife) and all my etchings drawings and engravings to the South Kensington Museum for the benefit of the nation to be kept there as one separate collection to be called "The Constantine Alexander Ionides Collection" and not distributed over the Museum or lent for exhibition. And I desire that the said Etchings Drawings and Engravings shall be framed and glazed by and at the expense of the authorities of the Museum so that Students there can easily see them.'
The collection bequeathed to the museum in 1901 comprises 1138 pictures, drawing and prints, to which a further 20 items were added on the death of his widow in 1920. The works are listed in the V&A catalogue of the Constantine Alexander Ionides collection.
Historical significance: This painting is a typical example of Henri de Braekeleer's large output of realist pictures. He had a predilection for humble subject matters such as the present one. He depicted few landscapes, a certain number of interior scenes (La fileuse, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Anvers), domestic scenes in open air, all often peopled by a single figure, a few genre portraits (Le géographe, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels), and some still-lifes.
A painting showing the same garden from a more distant point of view, dated 1864, is housed in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp (Inv. 1203). These two paintings, probably executed around the same time, were most likely inspired by the "Mechelsesteenweg" (now called "Mosselmanslei": Road to Malines) in Antwerp where the De Braekeleer family moved in 1852. There were in this neighbourhood many large gardens exploited by horticulturists and florists.
The present painting shows a humbly dressed woman leaning towards a row of cabbages. Her garment echoes the brick-red of the roofs whereas the vegetables' light green reflects the clear sky's brightness. Essential characteristics of De Braekeleer's art is the restricted palette that focuses on earthy pigments, burnt Sienna, browns, ochre and black enlivened by a very bright light that goes back to Pieter de Hooch's (1629-1684 ) pictorial effects.
Henri De Braekeleer belonged to the Belgian school of genre painters that focused on an immediate contact with their subjects and displayed a new realism that would precede and announce the school of The Hague. The artistic links between the northern and the southern parts of the Netherlands were indeed still very strong even after the independence of Belgium in 1830.
Historical context note
The artistic relationship between the Northern and the Southern Netherlands, that is modern-day Holland and Belgium, were very strong during the 19th century especially after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Netherlands in 1815. The Prix de Rome was awarded equally to Antwerp and Amsterdam artists, even after the independence of Belgium in 1830. The majority of Belgian art of the first half of the 19th century, including history painting, genre scenes, landscape and portrait paintings, articulated a new national pride which nevertheless drew upon French academic taste. Such artists as Jean-Bernard Duvivier (1762-1837), Henry Leys (1815-1869) and Karel Verlat (1824-1890) made extensive use of these renewed genres in their oeuvre. Focusing on the achievement of a greater realism, Belgian artists travelled a great deal, not only for training purposes in the tradition of their artistic predecessors but for the sake of discovering new surroundings and making new acquaintances: Paris was the favourite destination. While Italy also remained a popular destination, the majority of these artists tended to move on to other areas of interest, such as Morocco, less for their artistic traditions, and more for their exotic aspects.
Descriptive line
Oil painting, 'A Flemish Kitchen Garden: La Coupeuse de Choux', Henri de Braekeleer, Belgium, ca. 1864
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Ridder, A. de, Henri de Braekeleer, Brussels, 1931.
Haesaerts, P., Henri de Braekeleer, Brussels, 1943, pl. vii, 1-2.
On similar works but not on the V&A painting.
Conrardy, C, Henri de Braekeleer, Brussels, 1957.
C.M. Kauffmann, Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, p. 14, cat. no. 38.
The following is the full text of the entry:
Henri de BRAEKELEER (1840-88)
Belgian (Antwerp) School
Born in Antwerp, where he was the pupil of his uncle H. Leys, he became one of the best known painters of the 19th century Belgian School, obtaining gold medals at the Brussels exhibition of 1872 and the universal exhibition in Vienna in the following year. He painted genre scenes, some of them in the manner of Pieter de Hooch.
Lit. A. de Ridder, Henri de Braeheleer, Brussels, 1931; P. Haesaerts, Henri de Braekeleer, Brussels, 1943; C. Conrardy, Henri de Braekeleer,Brussels, 1957.
38
A FLEMISH GARDEN: LA COUPEUSE DE CHOUX
Signed lower right Henri de Braekeleer
Canvas
18 ¾ x 23 (47.6 x 58.4)
Ionides Bequest
CAI.88
Two paintings very similar in style and subject, entitled Le Jardin du Fleuriste, are in the Museums at Antwerp and Tournai (Haesaerts, op. cit., pl. vii, 1-2). Both are dated 1864. An etching after CAI.88, La Coupeuse de Choux, was also in the Ionides bequest (CAI.566; L. Delteil, Le peintre graveur illustré, xix, 1925, no. 55).
Condition. Cleaned in 1958.
Prov. Constantine Alexander Ionides; bequeathed to the Museum in 1900.
100 Great Paintings in The Victoria & Albert Museum, London: V&A, 1985, p. 162.
The following is the full text of the entry:
"Henri de Braekeleer 1840-1888
Belgian (Antwerp) School
A FLEMISH GARDEN: LA COUPEUSE DE CHOUX c.1864
Signed lower right Henri de Braekeleer
Oil on canvas 47.6 X 58.4 cm
CAI 88. Ionides Bequest.
Henri de Braekeleer was born in Antwerp and became the pupil of his uncle, the history painter Henry Leys, who took a special interest in him. As part of his training Leys took his nephew to churches and other ancient buildings, encouraging him to sketch precise architectural details, even sending him to Wittenburg to provide sketches of Martin Luther's house for one of Leys' own paintings. This journey kindled a life-long interest in the Reformer and Braekeleer became a devoted reader of the Bible. His early training in exact observation and rendering of detail stood Braekeleer in good stead, for he won a gold medal at the Brussels exhibition of 1872 and at the universal exhibition in Vienna the following year, becoming one of the best-known painters of the 19th-century Belgian School.
He is said to have much admired the work of Vermeer, but he did not slavishly copy him or his technique. Braekeleer was in the mainstream of Flemish painting however, and did share some of that artist's obsession with the portrayal of the fine details of the ordinary world, in buildings, costume and natural forms. The heightened sense of reality infuses Braekeleer's paintings of potentially mundane subjects with an indefinable atmosphere of melancholy, of something secret but almost tangible beyond surfaces and appearances in a way which looks back to Pieter de Hooch and foreshadows the work of Fernand Khnopff, especially in that artist's pictures of Bruges.
This precisely rendered scene of a vegetable garden in late summer is similar in style and subject to two paintings entitled 'Le Jardin du Fleuriste' which are in the Museums at Antwerp and Tournai. The theme of a woman in peasant costume cutting a humble cabbage seems ordinary enough when described in words but the lovingly painted details, such as the grey-green bloom on the leaves of the cabbages, the reassuring solidity of the ancient brickwork and the profusion of plants have an intensity which transcends the simplicity of the subject. The choice of view point is very subtle, reminiscent of Pieter de Hooch. The path to the alleyway intrigues the viewer, leads the eye to the courtyard glimpsed beyond and arouses curiosity about the other side of the buildings in the background.
Braekeleer painted other scenes in the manner of Flemish old masters, complete with historical trappings, but the common factor of all his paintings was the lack of violent movement, a desire for silence and contemplation, broken only by calm, deliberate useful actions; and a dislike for the commercial bustle of the modern world.
Charles Newton"
Clare A P Willsdon Impressionist Gardens Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2010. ISBN: 978 1 906270 28 5.
Exhibition catalogue
Exhibition History
Impressionist Gardens (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid 14/02/2010-16/11/2010)
Impressionist Gardens (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh 31/07/2010-17/10/2010)
Materials
Oil paint; Canvas
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Gardens; Genre scene; Cabbages; Peasantry
Categories
Paintings; Gardens & Gardening
Collection code
PDP
