Johannes Bosboom (1817 - 1891) - View From Rouen- Circa 1837-1839.

Rouen- View of the bustling old town- Circa 1837-1839.

Oil on monogrammed panel at bottom left.
Dimensions: 26.5 x 20.5 cm, with frame: 42.5 x 36 cm.

Johannes Bosboom here represents a delicate view of Rouen. It can be located between 1835 and 1839, the period during which he went to France. He painted the quai de Paris in Rouen in 1839, a painting kept at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The degree of detail specific to the Flemish school is emphasized. Lots of entertainment in the street, a cart of hay in the foreground, a market with stalls of goods. We can see in the background the masts of the boats moored on the banks of the Seine. His colorful palette is limited: the painter focuses on drawing and above all, on light. A ray of sunshine illuminates the facade and darkens, by contrast, the lower part of the painting playing on a light and dark. Belgian painter and watercolorist. Coming from a family of Austrian nobility, his parents had to emigrate to Belgium before his birth for political reasons. In 1831, Johannes Bosboom attended the workshop of Bartholomeus J. van Hove, painter of urban landscapes in The Hague. At first, Bosboom helped his teacher create theater sets and cityscapes. Around the age of 20, he decided to focus on the representation of church interiors. This decision determined his entire career, his work in this genre must establish his reputation. Subsequently, he wrote, he was influenced by the romantic movement, in particular by Wijnand Johannes Josephus Nuyen. Although Nuyen's influence was evident in his early work, he gradually abandoned romanticism for a more sober treatment of his subjects. After training in The Hague, Bosboom went to Germany, Belgium and France between 1835 and 1839 with his fellow students Samuel Verveer and Cornelis Kruseman. In 1851 he married the historical novelist Anna Louisa Geertruida Toussaint. Subsequently, he settled in the region and the village where he was born, Alkmaar. Bosboom has exhibited extensively and received numerous honors during his lifetime. It belongs to a long Dutch tradition of interior church painting established by Gerrit Houckgeest and Emanuel van Witte. He was seen, thanks to his freer watercolors and his vision of the fishing port of Scheveningen painted in the summer of 1873, as a painter of influence on the young generation of the school in The Hague. After the death of his twin brother Nicolas in 1862, Bosboom experienced a period of mild depression. In 1876 he stayed in the rural provinces of Groningen and Drente, where agricultural life and local churches informed him. During the last ten years of his working life, he worked almost entirely in watercolor.

Museums: Paris, Le Louvre; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; The Hague; Groningen; Glasgow; Hanover; Munich; Montreal.

Bibliography:. The memories of Johannes Bosboom. . art. "Johannes Bosboom (1817 - 1891)", Bénézit, Oxford Art Online.