Dominique Lang (1874–1919) is considered to be

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

's most important

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

painter. He painted both portraits and landscapes although he was employed as a high-school teacher."Lang, Dominique", ''Luxemburger Lexikon'', Editions Guy Binsfeld, Luxembourg, 2006.

Career

After completing his studies in 1901, he embarked on a

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, ...

phase when he painted the ''Baptism of Christ'', a fresco in the church at Junglinster followed by paintings for the stations of the cross in the new church at

Dudelange Dudelange (; ; ) is a commune with town status in southern Luxembourg. It is the fourth-most populous commune, with 22,043 inhabitants. Dudelange is situated close to the border with France. The commune also includes the smaller town of Bude ...

. Travelling on a State grant, he then spent four months studying art in

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 ...

and

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Back in Dudelange, he faced not just financial problems but negative criticism of his paintings from the ''

Cercle artistique de Luxembourg The Cercle artistique de Luxembourg (CAL), originally the Cercle artistique luxembourgeois, is an association founded in 1893 which brings together artists of all types with a view to supporting artistic work and art education in the Luxembourg, Gra ...

''. He began to suffer from dreadful headaches, leading him into depression. His art was influenced by his reading

Ruskin Ruskin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ruskin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Ruskin (given name), a list of people Places United States * Ruskin, Florida, a census-designated place * Ruskin, Georgia, an uni ...

Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( ; ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is known for his 1818 work '' The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the manife ...

and

Spengler Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German polymath whose areas of interest included history, philosophy, mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best kno ...

, leading him into a

Symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

period where his work resembled that of the English

Pre-Raphaelites The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti ...

who reacted against mechanisation by evoking the legends of the Middle Ages. His paintings ''La jeune fille et la mort'' and ''La mort entrant dans la maison'' are from this period. During this period, he left the family home and set up a studio in a poorer area of Dudelange."Dominique Lang (1874-1919)"
, ''Centre de Documentation sur les Migrations Humaines''. Retrieved 22 January 2011. After a few months in Paris (1905), Lang was admitted to the Munich Academy in March 1906 where he studied contemporary art and Impressionism (from 1907) which had a drastic effect on his painting style.Georgette Bisdorff, "Dominique Lang"
La Collection Luxembourgeoise du Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art, ''Ons stad'', No 68, 2001. Retrieved 22 January 2011. When he returned to Dudelange, he opened a photographic studio which finally provided him with a reasonable income. In 1911, he married Anne-Marie Ney in 1911, who would appear in many of his paintings, and the same year he started to work as an art teacher. He first taught at the Lycée des Filles in Luxembourg City and then at the Ecole industrielle et commerciale in

Esch-sur-Alzette Esch-sur-Alzette (, ; ; or ''Esch an der Alzig'') is a city in Luxembourg and the country's List of communes of Luxembourg by population, second-most populous commune, with a population of 36,625 inhabitants, . It lies in the south-west of the ...

. Unable to make a living from his paintings, for which he received little recognition during his lifetime, Lang had to remain a teacher for the rest of his working life. Lang Barrage 1913

His paintings were increasingly Impressionist, full of ever brighter light and often depicting a young woman clothed in white. Using short brush strokes, he would make abundant use of blues and greens. In 1912–13, he began to adopt the pure colouring favoured by

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French people, French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, fe ...

and

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( ; ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). ...

. Around this time, he began to venture out along the banks of the River Alzette painting scenes of orchards, flower picking, and fruit harvesting or of the peasant's houses in the area where he lived. His painting of ''Dudelange en 1917'' is an illustration of his characteristic aversion to industrialization. There is no sight of factories or workmen's housing in the idyllic countryside surrounding the town. The final period in Lang's life was once again one of increasing pessimism and distress as he suffered from severe migraines and almost total blindness. He was 45 when he died in Schifflange on 22 June 1919, and was buried in his native Dudelange.

Affiliations and awards

Lang was a member of the Cercle Artistique de Luxembourg where he exhibited his paintings. In 1904 and 1919, he was awarded the Grand-Duc Adolphe Prize.

Gallery

File:Lang Chemin de Croix Dudelange.jpg, Dominique Lang: ''First Station of the Cross'', Dudelange Church (c. 1901) File:Lang Banks of the Alzette 1915.jpg, Dominique Lang: ''Banks of the Alzette'' (1915) File:Lang Walnut Tree in Spring Sunshine 1915.jpg , Dominique Lang: ''Walnut Tree in Spring Sunshine'' (1915)

Bibliography

*Petit, Joseph; Hoffmann, Jim: ''Dominique Lang - Impressioniste luxembourgeois'', Luxembourg: Raymon Mehlen, 1953. *Waringo, René: "Dominique Lang 1874-1919 - Die Via Crucis in der Düdelinger Pfarrkirche", reprinted from the Luxemburger Marienkalender, Luxembourg: Imprimerie St-Paul, 1990. *Waringo, René; Stammet, Danièle: ''Rétrospective Dominique Lang, Dudelange'': Ville de Dudelange, 1994, (catalogue of the Dudelange exhibition from 6 May to 19 June 1994)

References

External links

''Biography of Dominique Lang with illustrations''
Centre de Documentation sur les Migrations Humaines, Dudelange {{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Dominique Luxembourgian painters 1874 births 1919 deaths Luxembourgian Impressionist painters Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni Alumni of the Athénée de Luxembourg People from Dudelange