Anna Rosalie Boch (10 February 1848 – 25 February 1936) was a Belgian

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

, born in Saint-Vaast, Hainaut. Anna Boch died in Ixelles in 1936 and is interred there in the Ixelles Cemetery,

Brussels, Belgium Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Artistic style

Boch participated in the Neo-Impressionist movement. Her early works used a Pointillist technique, but she is best known for her Impressionist style which she adopted for most of her career. A pupil of

Isidore Verheyden Isidore Verheyden (24 January 1846, in Antwerp – 1 November 1905, in Elsene) was a Belgian painter of landscapes, portraits and still life. He was the son of painter Jean-François Verheyden; his first teacher at the Académie Royale de ...

, she was influenced by Théo van Rysselberghe whom she met in the

Groupe des XX ''Les XX'' ( French; "''Les Vingt''"; ; ) was a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, formed in 1883 by the Brussels lawyer, publisher, and entrepreneur Octave Maus. For ten years, they held an annual exhibition of their art ...

Collection

Besides her own paintings, Boch held one of the most important collections of Impressionist paintings of her time. She promoted many young artists, including

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

, whom she admired for his talent and who was a friend of her brother Eugène Boch. '' La Vigne Rouge'' (''The Red Vineyard''), purchased by Anna Boch, is believed to be the only painting Van Gogh sold during his lifetime. The Anna Boch collection was sold after her death. In her will, she donated the money to pay for the retirement of poor artist friends.

Legacy

140 of her own paintings were left to her godchild Ida van Haelewijn, the daughter of her gardener. Many of these paintings show Ida van Haelewijn as a little girl in the garden. In 1968, these 140 paintings were purchased by her great nephew Luitwin von Boch, the CEO of Villeroy & Boch Ceramics. The paintings remained in the house of Ida van Haelewijn until her death in 1992. The Anna & Eugène Boch Expo opened 30 March 2011. Some paintings were also donated by Anna Boch's will to various museums like the

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Mus ...

. Different exhibitions of her life and work were held at the at Morlanwelz, between October at December 2000 or in the Vincent van Gogh-huis in

Hoogeveen Hoogeveen (; nds-nl, 't Ogeveine or '' 't Oveine'') is a municipality and a town in the Dutch province of Drenthe. Population centres Elim, Fluitenberg, Hoogeveen and Noordscheschut, which still have the canals which used to be throughout ...

in 2010. Her name is associated with famous museums like the

Pushkin Museum The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (russian: Музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина, abbreviated as ) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just oppo ...

in Moscow, the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French a ...

in Paris or the in Zundert, the Netherlands.

Cultural heritage

In 2005, the Belgian historian Dr Therèse Thomas published a catalogue raisonné. In 2010, a great great great nephew of Anna Boch and Dr Therèse Thomas created the Anna Boch.com website. Since 2011, the website is edited from the Cremerie de Paris, a brand expo center located at the Hotel de Villeroy near the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

References

Sources

* P. & V. Berko, ''Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875'', Knokke 1981, p. 51.

External links

*
Anna Boch.com
- includes painting reproductions *

Anna Boch
at The Athenaeum {{DEFAULTSORT:Boch, Anna 1848 births 1936 deaths People from La Louvière Post-impressionist painters Belgian women painters Burials at Ixelles Cemetery 19th-century Belgian women artists 20th-century Belgian women artists 19th-century Belgian painters 20th-century Belgian painters