Guillaume Vogels (9 June 1836, 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 ...

– 9 January 1896, in

Ixelles (French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located to the south-east of Pentagon (Brussels), Brusse ...

) was a Belgian

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.

Life

He was the son of a laborer. After his primary education, he was apprenticed to the Bellis Brothers, a house painting and decoration firm, and received a master certificate in 1855. He later owned his own decorating company in Brussels. One of his employees there was the Greek painter

Périclès Pantazis Périclès Pantazis (, ''Periklis Pantazis''; 13 March 1849, Athens25 January 1884, Brussels) was a major Greece, Greek impressionist painter of the 19th century who gained a great reputation as an artist initially in Belgium. Life Pantazis ...

, who became his lifelong friend, introducing him to the works of

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( ; ; ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the ...

and

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (art movement), R ...

and showing him the techniques of painting with the

palette knife A palette knife is a blunt tool used for mixing or applying paint, with a flexible steel blade. It is primarily used for applying paint to the canvas, mixing paint colors, adding texture to the painted surface, paste, etc., or for Paper marbling, ...

. In 1870, he went to Paris, where he came under the influence of the Barbizon school. His first exhibition was at

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) 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 the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

in 1874, but his work was not well received by the critics. He didn't achieve a career breakthrough until 1880, when he participated in the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

.Götz Czymmek: ''Guillaume Vogels und Emile Claus, zwei Belgische Impressionisten''. Exhibition catalog, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, 1988 In 1884, he became a member of ''

Les 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 a ...

'', a

secessionist Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

group. This led to a meeting with

James Ensor James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for most of his life. He was associated with the artistic ...

. The two apparently travelled together on study tours to England and the Netherlands and some critics cite Vogels as a significant influence on Ensor. After ''Les XX'' was disbanded in 1893, he participated in the creation of a new group called ''

La Libre Esthétique ''La Libre Esthétique'' ( French; "The Free Aesthetics") was an artistic society founded in 1893 in Brussels, Belgium to continue the efforts of the artists' group '' Les XX'' dissolved the same year. To reduce conflicts between artists invited o ...

''. He kept no written records and left his works undated, which makes it difficult to establish a chronology showing the development of his style. Some influence from the

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

seems to mark his later paintings, although many display a loose brushwork that appears to anticipate

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

techniques.

References

External links

ArtNet: Eight pages of paintings by Vogels

Association du Patrimoine Artistique: Espace Expo (2011)
appreciation and brief biography. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vogels, Guillaume 1836 births 1896 deaths Painters from Brussels 19th-century Belgian painters Belgian male painters 19th-century Belgian male artists Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels alumni Belgian Impressionist painters

Life

References

Further reading

External links