We had so much fun last week looking at a picture by Gustave Leonard de Jonghe (1829 - 1893), that we could not help but revisit
him. De Jongh was a painter and watercolorist of figures and genre
scenes. He started his artistic training with his father, Jean-Baptist de Jonghe. After his parents died, the young de Jongh
was granted a small pension by the Corporation of Curtrai to aid him in his study
of art. He studied under François-Jean
Navez at the Academy of Brussels, though his painting style was most strongly
influenced by his friend, and fellow Belgian painter, Louis Gallait, who also advised de Jongh on many of his career
decisions. Although de Jongh started his career painting historical and sacred
subject matter, he is most famous for his genre paintings with bourgeois themes
and rich materials. In 1855, he became in the direct successor of the renowned
Belgian painter, Alfred Stevens, in
Paris. He exhibited at the Royal Academy with his painting, The Birthday Wishes, in 1875.
Today’s
picture features another society lady interacting with her pet. But whereas L’admiratrice du
Japon involved a moment of
inter-species tension, today we simply have cats being cats.
Our society lady is in an opulent room treated with green leather,
perhaps as a nod to Whistler and his
famous Peacock Room. Japanese screens, a
vase and an urn help to makeup the décor, indicating again that our gentle
aesthete is current with the fin de
siècle fad for Japanese bric-a-brac.
The green upholstered chair behind the book table (stacked with
complimentarily-colored red leather volumes) and the gilt embossing on the wall
to compliment the screen unify the color scheme.
The cat, playing with the pendulous folds of the lady’s dress, is
elegantly and casually rendered. The folds
of the lady’s dress are carefully crafted without being fussy – and readers
should remember that mastering the folds of drapery or clothing were something
that the 19th Century Masters drew and re-drew in order to master
their form.
The fabric of her dress – alternately satiny and velvety – has a
wonderfully tactile quality. And the
picture is, perhaps, ever so slightly … naughty. Our lady lifts her skirt while playing with
her cat, exposing the gauzy whiteness of her petticoats.
Marvel, if you will, for a moment on de Jonghe’s mastery of
drawing. The intricate leg of the table,
the leaves of the wall sconce, the graceful curve of the woman’s body, the
almost casual brilliance of her hands --this is a control drawing that has been
long missing from most of our contemporary artists.
More de Jonghe tomorrow!
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