Oil Painting, 'Head of a Boy', Eugen von Blaas, German school, ca. 1880

A bust-length oil portrait of a young boy in three-quarter profile, turned to the right.

Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon

Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon, 1886

Historical significance: This painting is a good example of the realist painting in vogue in Italy at the end of the 19th century. It depicts a young boy looking right, wearing a flat bonnet and a humble linen jacket. This boy was probably a member of the fishing community in Venice, which Blaas represented in several portraits and everyday genre scenes.
A very similar painting, showing a young boy with a similar outfit looking left was sold at Christie's New York, 30 Oct 2002, lot 161. The use of an earthen palette with a free brushwork combined with a genre piece is reminiscent of the French Realist movement and the Florentine Macchiaoli group who developed a greater naturalism and favoured rustic subject matters.
The V&A painting escaped the attention of Thomas Wassibauer, author of the 2005 catalogue raisonné on von Blaas, but it however corresponds perfectly to the author description of the artist's ability to paint figures: "the artist's infinite skill showing glorious flesh tones [used] a technique Eugen learned from his father Karl. In his autobiography, Karl von Blaas describes how he studied Titian's technique and learned to build up flesh colours using different glazes in order to produce a natural and three-dimensional effect..." (T. Wassibauer, Eugen von Blaas 1843-1931, Hildesheim, 2005. pp. 16-17).

Eugen von Blaas (1843-1931) was born in Albano Laziale near Rome, where he trained under his father, the Austrian history painter Karl von Blaas (1815-1894), who taught at the fine arts academy in Venice. He definitively settled in Venice after his marriage in 1867 and achieved there a reasonable success. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, Grafton Gallery and New gallery between 1875 and 1892.

This painting is a fine example of the numerous portraits of the small fishing community in Venice Blaas executed around 1880. the free and naturalistic brushwork is close to the Realist art which developed in Italy in the second half of the 19th century through the Macchiaoli movement which developed in Italy under the influence of Corot and Courbet.

1076-1886