Hubert Vos (February 15, 1855 – January 8, 1935) was a Dutch painter who was born Josephus Hubertus Vos in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...

. He studied at 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 ...

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 with

Fernand Cormon Fernand Cormon (; 24 December 1845 – 20 March 1924) was a French painter born in Paris. He became a pupil of Alexandre Cabanel, Eugène Fromentin, and Jean-François Portaels, and one of the leading historical painters of modern France. Biog ...

in Paris. He exhibited widely in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dresden and Munich. From 1885 to 1892, he worked in England, where he exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

between 1888 and 1891. He was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists.

Career

In 1877, he married Aline Watteau, family of the famous French rococopainter Jean Antoine Watteau. They had two children: a daughter, Isolde (1881 - 1950) and a son, Marius (1883 - 1974). His second wife was Eleanor Kaikilani Coney, of Hawaiian, Chinese, and American descent. They married in 1897 and had one daughter, Margueritte. In 1898, he visited

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, where he painted the local people. In that same year, Vos traveled to

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

, where he completed at least three paintings in duplicate. In each case, he left one copy in Korea and kept one copy. The paintings are a life-sized portrait of

Emperor Gojong Gojong (; 8 September 1852 – 21 January 1919), personal name Yi Myeongbok (), later Yi Hui (), also known as the Gwangmu Emperor (), was the penultimate List of monarchs of Korea, Korean monarch. He ruled Korea for 43 years, from 1864 to 19 ...

, a portrait of Min Sangho (1870–1933), and a landscape of

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

. The copies left in Korea hung in the Deoksugung Palace until all except the landscape of

, were destroyed by fire in 1904. Vos visited China in 1899 and painted portraits of prominent leaders.

Empress Dowager Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908) was a Manchu noblewoman of the Yehe Nara clan who effectively but periodically controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing dynasty as empress dowager and regent for almost 50 ...

(Tzu Hsi), whose portrait had been painted in oil by the American artist Katharine Carl, saw these portraits and invited Vos to visit China in 1905. He did one portrait of her which is still displayed in the

Summer Palace The Summer Palace () is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden during the Qing dynasty. Inside includes Longevity Hill () Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of , three-quar ...

, then after he got back to New York, finished another portrait which he had started in China. This was displayed at the Paris Salon, then acquired by Grenville L. Winthrop and given to the

Fogg Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

at Harvard. In addition to portraits and landscapes, Vos is known for his interior scenes and still-life paintings of Chinese porcelains. The gifts from

are favorite objects of the still-life paintings. He died in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1935. The

Louvre Museum 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 ...

(Paris, France), Bonnefanten Museum (Maastricht, Netherlands), the

Chicago History Museum Chicago History Museum is the museum of the Chicago Historical Society (CHS). The CHS was founded in 1856 to study and interpret Chicago's history. The museum has been located in Lincoln Park since the 1930s at 1601 North Clark Street (Chicago) ...

, the Fogg Art Museum (

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

), the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single co ...

, the

Luxembourg Palace The Luxembourg Palace (, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the regent Marie de' Med ...

(Paris), the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, Capital Museum (Beijing), and the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

are among the public collections holding works by Hubert Vos.Smithsonian American Art Museum, Art Inventories Catalog
/ref> Vos was elected to

The Lambs The Lambs, Inc. (also known as The Lambs Club) is a New York City social club that nurtures those active in the arts, as well as those who are supporters of the arts, by providing activities and a clubhouse for its members. It is America's old ...

theatrical club in 1895. Three of his portraits are displayed in the club collection in Manhattan.

Selected works

File:Hubert Vos - 'Iokepa, Hawaiian Fisher Boy'.jpg, ''Iokepa, Hawaiian Fisher Boy'', 1898 Image:Hubert Vos's painting 'The Knitting Room.jpg, ''The Knitting Room'' Image:Hubert Vos's painting 'Pink and Green Vase'.jpg, ''Pink and Green Vase'' File:Hubert Vos, Kaikilani, 1900.jpg, ''Kaikilani'', 1900 File:Hubert Vos, Kaikilani bust, undated.jpg, ''Kaikilani'', undated File:Hubert Vos (1855-1935) - Hawaiian Troubadour, 1898.jpg, ''Hawaiian Troubadour'', oil on canvas painting by Hubert Vos, 1898,

File:Hubert Vos - 'Study of Hawaiian Fish', oil on canvas. 1898, Honolulu Academy of Arts.jpg, ''Study of Hawaiian Fish'', 1898,

File:Empress-Dowager-Cixi1.jpg,

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

Cixi Imperial Dowager Empress of China, painting by Hubert Vos, 1905

References

* Virginia Anderson,
'A Semi-Chinese Picture': Hubert Vos and the Empress Dowager of China
" ''Proceedings and Other Publications'' (2012). * Ellis, George R. and Marcia Morse, ''A Hawaii Treasury, Masterpieces from the Honolulu Academy of Arts'', Tokyo, Asahi Shimbun, 2000, 150, 223-4. * Forbes, David W., "Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941", Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, 220-223. * Luke SK Kwong, "No Shadows," ''History Today'' 50 (2000): 42-43. * Severson, Don R. ''Finding Paradise: Island Art in Private Collections'', University of Hawaii Press, 2002, p. 104-5. * Wood, Christopher, ''Victorian Painters'', 3rd ed., revised, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1995.

External links

Painting an Empress; Hubert Vos, K.C.D.D., the First Man to Portray the Dowager Empress of China
The New York Times, December 17, 1905, Sunday]
Hubert Vos in AskArt.com

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Art Inventories Catalog

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vos, Hubert 1855 births 1935 deaths Dutch portrait painters Dutch landscape painters Dutch still life painters Artists from Maastricht Painters from Limburg (Netherlands) Academic art 19th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters 20th-century Dutch painters 19th-century Dutch male artists 20th-century Dutch male artists