Charles-Louis Baugniet (; 27 February 1814 – 5 July 1886) was a Belgian painter, lithographer and aquarellist. His name remains attached to the lithographing of portraits of famous and lesser-known figures from Belgium, France and England. They are politicians, senior officials, prominent clergy, both from the Roman Catholic and Anglican Church, industrialists, professors, artists, musicians, actors, and people from the vaudeville world.

Biography

He was born in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

and attended the

Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels ( ''(ArBA-EsA)''; ) is an art school in Brussels, Belgium, founded in 1711. Starting from modest beginnings in a single room in Brussels Town Hall, Brussels' Town Hall, it has since 1876 been operat ...

in Brussels during 1827–29, where he studied under

Joseph Paelinck Joseph Paelinck, (20 March 1781 – 19 June 1839) was a painter from the Southern Netherlands. Biography Paelinck attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Ghent) and then with Jacques-Louis David in Paris, where he painted in 1804 ''A Judgment ...

and

Florent Willems Florent Willems or Florent Willems van Edeghem (8 January 1823 – 23 October 1905)Florent Willems
at the

. His first attempts lithography date from 1827, and his reputation grew steadily with the appearance of his first portraits in the magazine ''L'Artiste'' in 1833. He collaborated with from 1835 until 1842 in producing a series of portraits of the Belgian House of Representatives. Louis Huard finished only 6 portraits, Baugniet doing the remainder. This was followed in 1836 by a series of 30 portraits of contemporary artists—''"Les Artistes Contemporains"''. Included were portraits of

Louis Jéhotte Louis Jehotte (7 November 1803 or 1804 – 3 February 1884) was a prominent Belgian sculptor working in a realist tradition that was inflected, responsible for the bronze equestrian monument to Charlemagne erected on the in Liège, Belgium, in ...

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, ...

Nicaise De Keyser Nicaise de Keyser (alternative first names: Nicaas, Nikaas of Nicasius; 26 August 1813, Zandvliet – 17 July 1887, Antwerp) was a Belgian painter of mainly history paintings and portraits who was one of the key figures in the Belgian Romantic- ...

, Jean-Baptiste Madou,

Eugène Simonis Louis-Eugène Simonis (; 11 July 1810, in Liège – 11 July 1893, in Koekelberg) was a Belgian sculptor. Career Simonis studied under François-Joseph Dewandre at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Liège and at the age of nineteen went to ...

, Charles-Louis Verboeckhoven,

Horace Vernet Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (; 30 June 178917 January 1863) more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist subjects. Biography Early career Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another famo ...

Paul Delaroche Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche (; Paris, 17 July 1797 – Paris, 4 November 1856) was a French painter who achieved his greater successes painting historical scenes. He became famous in Europe for his melodramatic depictions that often portrayed subje ...

and

Hippolyte Bellangé Joseph Louis Hippolyte Bellangé (17 January 1800 – 10 April 1866) was a French battle painter and printmaker. His art was influenced by the wars of the first Napoleon, and while a youth, he produced several military drawings in lithography. H ...

. He was commissioned to do portraits of the Belgian royal family, and this led to his appointment as

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

in 1841. In 1843 he moved to London where he became a leading society portrait painter, creating a portrait of

Prince Albert Prince Albert most commonly refers to: *Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria *Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco Prince Albert may also refer to: Royalty * Alb ...

in 1851. Later he often returned to London to do portraits of celebrities such as

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

and the French composer

Hector Berlioz Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the ''Symphonie fantastique'' and ''Harold en Italie, Harold in Italy'' ...

. Baugniet also designed the first Belgian postage stamp (the so-called

Epaulettes Epaulette (; also spelled epaulet) is a type of ornamental shoulder piece or decoration used as insignia of rank by armed forces and other organizations. Flexible metal epaulettes (usually made from brass) are referred to as ''shoulder scales ...

type) brought into circulation on 1 July 1849. The stamp depicted

Leopold I of Belgium Leopold I (16 December 1790 – 10 December 1865) was the first king of the Belgians, reigning from 21 July 1831 until his death in 1865. The youngest son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Leopold took a commission in the Imperial Rus ...

after a painting by

Liévin De Winne Liévin De Winne (Ghent, 24 January 1821 - Brussels, 13 May 1880) was a Belgian portrait painter who painted the official portrait of Leopold I of Belgium, Leopold I on which the first postage stamp of Belgium was based. De Winne was a pupil of ...

. Baugniet settled in Paris in 1860. Almost overnight the invention and development of photography strangled the traditional market of lithographic portraits, forcing many of Baugniet's colleagues to become professional photographers. Baugniet however concentrated on producing paintings and portraits which displayed the studied elegance of the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

, a genre that enjoyed great popularity. He died in

Sèvres Sèvres (, ) is a French Communes of France, commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris. It is located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department of the Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a populatio ...

in 1886.

Honours

* Knight in the Order of Christ. * Knight in the

Saxe-Ernestine House Order The Saxe-Ernestine House Order ()Hausorden
Herzogliche Haus Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha was a ...

. * Knight in the

Order of Isabella the Catholic The Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic (; Abbreviation, Abbr.: OYC) is a knighthood and one of the three preeminent Order of merit, orders of merit bestowed by the Kingdom of Spain, alongside the Order of Charles III (established in 1771) and ...

Bibliography

*Thieme-Becker, ''Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart'', vol. 3, Leipzig, 1909, p. 74-75. *Benezit E., ''Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs'', Paris, Librairie Gründ, 1976, tome I, p. 525. *Rouir Eugène, ''150 ans de gravure en Belgique'', Bruxelles, C.G.E.R./Meddens, 1980, p. 8. *Berko P. & V., ''Dictionnaire des peintres belges nés entre 1750 & 1875'', Bruxelles, Laconti, 1981, p. 34. *Jacobs Alain, ''Baugniet, dans Le Dictionnaire des Peintres belges du XIVe siècle à nos jours depuis les premiers maîtres des anciens Pays-bas méridionaux et de la Principauté de Liège jusqu'aux artistes contemporains'', Bruxelles, La Renaissance du Livre, 1995, p. 56. (le Dictionnaire des Peintres belges sur internet : site de l'IRPA : Balat)

References

External links

Charles Baugniet website
home page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baugniet, Charles 1814 births 1886 deaths Painters from Brussels Court painters 19th-century Belgian lithographers 19th-century Belgian painters Belgian male painters 19th-century Belgian male artists Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels alumni