Camille van Camp (3 June 1834,

Tongeren Tongeren (; ; ; ) is a city and former municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the only Roman administrative capital wit ...

– 16 November 1891,

Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...

) was a Belgian portrait and landscape painter,

watercolorist Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

, and engraver.

Life and work

His father was a lawyer; originally from

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. From 1848 to 1853, he studied at the

Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) is a non-governmental association that promotes and organises science and the arts in Belgium by coordinating the national and international activities of its constituent academies su ...

with

François-Joseph Navez François-Joseph Navez (16 November 1787 in Charleroi – 12 October 1869 in Brussels) was a Belgian Neoclassicism, Neoclassical painter; known for his portraits and Genre art, genre scenes. Biography As the son of an alderman, in a privileged f ...

Louis Gallait Louis Gallait (9 or 10 May 1810 – 20 November 1887) was a Walloons, Belgian painter. He lay at the basis of a revival of history painting in Belgium. He earned his reputation especially with the large painting of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, ...

and . He paid a visit to

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

in 1857, where he copied the

Old Masters In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

at the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of th ...

. Two years later, he did the same thing at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

in Paris. In 1863, he and his friend, Hippolyte Boulenger, went to

Tervuren Tervuren (; ) is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren proper, Vossem and Moorsel. On 1 January 2006, Tervuren had a total population o ...

, the site of a flourishing artists' colony. There, he participated in creating a style of landscape painting that came to be known as the . Five years later, he was one of the co-founders of the

Société Libre des Beaux-Arts The Société Libre des Beaux-Arts ("Free Society of Fine Arts") was an organization formed in 1868 by Belgian artists to react against academicism and to advance Realist painting and artistic freedom. Based in Brussels, the society was active un ...

. He also published criticism in ''L’Art libre'', a French fine arts journal, and was a correspondent for the ''

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'', founded by Herbert Ingram and first published on Saturday 14 May 1842, was the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. The magazine was published weekly for most of its existence, switched to a less freq ...

''. He was one of the illustrators for the first edition of '' The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel'', by

Charles De Coster Charles-Theodore-Henri De Coster (20 August 1827 – 7 May 1879) was a Belgian novelist whose efforts laid the basis for a native Belgian literature. Early life and education He was born in Munich; his father, Augustin De Coster, was a n ...

. Unfortunately, it was poorly printed and full of typographical errors. Corrections were made for a second edition in 1869, but the work gained little attention until the 1920s, when new illustrations were created. He died while taking the cure at a spa in Switzerland.

Sources

* "Camp, Camille J. B. van", In: Ulrich Thieme (Ed.): ''Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart'', Vol.5: Brewer–Carlingen. E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1911, pg.445
Online
* "Van Camp, Camille" in: ''Dictionnaire des peintres belges'
(Online)
* Simone Speth-Holterhoff, ''Camille Van Camp, 1834-1891'', preface by Paul Fierens, Brussels, La Renaissance du Livre, 1952

External links

More works by Van Camp
@ ArtNet {{DEFAULTSORT:Camp, Camille van 1834 births 1891 deaths Belgian painters Belgian portrait painters Belgian watercolourists Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels alumni People from Tongeren