Jean-françois Eliaerts (1761-1848) - Sketch On Panel

Jean-François Eliaerts (Antwerp, 1761 - Antwerp, 1848).
Sketch.
Bouquet of flowers in a terracotta vase.
Circa 1830.
Oil on panel.
H : 45 ; W : 37 cm.

This oil sketch depicts a bouquet in a vase resting on a shelf rising diagonally from the panel. The medium used allows a play of transparency on the petals of the flowers depicted, and the spontaneity of the brushstroke gives a wild aspect to this domesticated nature, composed of roses, carnations and anemones.

Jean-François Eliaerts was a Belgian artist who exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon from 1806 to 1848[1]. He was born in Deurne, near Antwerp, and studied at the Antwerp Academy, where he met Frédéric Ziesel (1757-1809) and Pieter Faes (1750-1814), specialising in still life.

In the 1800s, he emigrated to Paris and taught at the Institut de la Légion d'Honneur, where he distinguished himself at the Salon for his depictions of floral compositions. He introduced Flemish still-life painting from the second half of the eighteenth century to French visitors and his pupils. Until then, it was the combined influence of 17th-century Italian and Flemish still lifes that dominated the compositions of his French contemporaries.

His flower paintings are part of the late Baroque tradition of floral painting, as developed by Jan van Huysum (1682-1749) and taken up by Van Dael (1764-1850). Along with Pieter Faes and Joris-Frederik Ziesel, he was one of the most important representatives of this type of painting in Belgium at the dawn of the 19th century.
With its massive, tormented composition, our bouquet is part of this tradition.


[1] "Salons and group exhibitions 1673-1914" database, salons.musee-orsay.fr, a project of the Musée d'Orsay and the Institut national d'histoire de l'art supported by the Ministère de la Culture et de la communication, consulted on 11/01/2024.