19th Century Belgian Painting in the Hermitage
28 February, 2003 - 29 June, 2003

In the Winter Palace (Rooms No. 338-341) opened an exhibition of 50 paintings by the 19th century Belgian artists. The State Hermitage Museum has about 100 works by Belgian painters. Most of them were owned by members of the Imperial Family, Prince A.M. Gorchakov and Count N.A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, whose collections of modern art were the best in Russia, determining to a great extent the nature of the Hermitage collection of Belgian paintings.

In the 19th century, only private collectors who took into account the master’s reputation in the arts market bought modern paintings. Till the last third of the 19th century, many Russian collectors preferred West European art, bringing to St. Petersburg a great number of canvases by foreign artists including Belgians. The European renown of Louis Gallet helped thirty of his paintings find their way to the Russian capital. Palaces and mansions of St. Petersburg housed over forty canvases by Henri Leys and over thirty canvases by Eugen Veerbukhoven. After the 1918 nationalization, many paintings from private collections of St. Petersburg were brought to the Hermitage.

The first painting by the Belgian artist Willems was brought to St. Petersburg in 1842 and displayed at the annual exhibition of the Academy of Arts. At the 1849 exhibition there were fourteen of them. The same exhibition showed five portraits by W. de Gronkel, the only Belgian member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts since 1850. Eduard Agnessen came to St. Petersburg in 1871 to create a portrait of actor V.V. Samoylov’s children.
At the 1851 and 1861 charity exhibitions in St. Petersburg works by Henri Leys and Louis Gallet held a place of honor. Belgian paintings including works by Brakeler, Eckhaut and Wauters were sold at auctions of foreign art. In 1854, for the Empress’s birthday, Emperor Nicholas I bought a painting by Dillens. In 1857, Alexander II bought works by Dillens and Eugen Veerbukhoven for Christmas gifts.

This is undoubtedly the best and fullest collection of the 19th century Belgian painting outside Belgium including works by almost all the renowned Belgian masters of the epoch.

A will
Alexander Struys
Larger view

A fishman’s family
Louis Gallait
Larger view

A nice letter
Alfred Stevens
Larger view