On The Banks Of The Meuse Near Waulsort By François Roffiaen (1820-1898) Oil On Canvas

On the banks of the Meuse, near Waulsort (before the canalization of the Meuse) Signed lower right François Roffiaen (1820-1898): Biography The members of his family on his father's side are of modest origin. The men are day laborers, masons, innkeepers or saddlers and the women are seamstresses or lacemakers. François Roffiaen was barely three years old when, for unknown reasons, he went to live with his paternal uncle, Joseph-Louis-Augustin, a bookseller in Namur, a town where he spent, as he himself notes, "the best years of his life" and where he attended the Athénée, as well as the Academy of Painting (1835-1839) under the direction of Ferninand Marinus (1808-1890). Among his classmates were Louis Bonet (1822-1894), Jean-Baptiste Kindermans (1821-1876) and Joseph Quinaux (1822-1895). He continued his artistic studies at the Brussels Academy (1839-1842), notably with the famous védutist François Bossuet (1789-1889), who was responsible for teaching him perspective and was an authority on landscapes and city views. . He then attended the Brussels studio of Pierre-Louis Kühnen (1812-1877), a painter from Aachen specializing in romantic landscape painting. Roffiaen received an annual grant of 600 francs from the city of Ypres (1841-1845 or 1846). At the same time, he taught drawing at the Dinant college. Strongly impressed by the paintings that Alexandre Calame (1810 - 1864) sent to the Belgian Salons, François Roffiaen obtained a scholarship for a stay in Geneva in the fall of 1846 and stayed six months with the master, before discovering the painting himself. mountain. But the painter also likes to represent the picturesque scenes of the Meuse and Ourthe valleys, the Scottish lochs, discovered in 1862, or the vast expanses of heather in Limburg. Classified among the romantic painters, the quality of execution of his paintings, particularly those of his large monumental formats, is hyperrealistic, even photographic, with a dazzling fineness of finish. So much so that some critics prefer his smaller format “studies”, with a more sensitive and less smooth touch. Trained at the Brussels Academy (1839-42), Roffiaen quickly created excellent alpine landscapes and already participated in major international exhibitions before joining Alexandre Calame. His works met with great commercial success - particularly in the 1850s and 60s - and the European and world aristocracy (Shah of Persia) commissioned him. He enjoyed particular success in Belgium (the Royal House of Belgium), Great Britain and the United States. Queen Victoria asked him to go to Scotland, but the plan was canceled upon the death of Prince Albert. In 1869 he was made a knight of the Order of Leopold. Celebrated during his lifetime, he is now rediscovered. Roffiaen's work is otherwise precise, full of realistic details, and exceptionally sensitive; the touch is shimmering, but fine, attentive to the path of the sun. Masterpieces that achieve the miracle of balance to appear more grandiose and intimate.