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Philippe Jacques VAN BRÉE (1786 Antwerp – 1871, Saint-Josse-…
See original version (French)
70
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Philippe Jacques VAN BRÉE (1786 Antwerp – 1871, Saint-Josse-…
See original version (French)
Estimate €3,000 - €4,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Philippe Jacques VAN BRÉE (1786 Antwerp – 1871, Saint-Josse-ten-Node, Brussels)
Odalisque
Canvas
Signed and dated ‘P. Van Brée / Rome’ in the top right-hand corner
66 x 94 cm – 26 x 37 in.
Odalisque, canvas, signed and dated ‘Rome’ in the top right-hand corner
Provenance:
Private collection, Germany.
Description:
Born in Brussels in 1786, Philippe-Jacques Van Brée’s first teacher was his brother, Mathieu-Ignace (1773–1839), thirteen years his senior. From 1811 onwards, he exhibited at the Brussels Salon. That same year, he left for Paris and joined the studio of Girodet (1767–1824), from whom he adopted the smooth, refined style of the Neoclassical painters. Between 1816 and 1818, he travelled to Rome, funded by the Pankaufes, a wealthy couple of patrons. As he was not productive enough for his patrons’ liking, his stay in Italy was interrupted for two years, during which time he returned to France.
From his very first stay on the Italian peninsula, Van Brée demonstrated a penchant for drawing and a style inherited from the school of David (1748–1825).
By 1821, Van Brée was back in Rome, from where he made a name for himself throughout Europe. Close to his fellow Belgians, he also moved in local high society circles. At the turn of the 1830s, he returned to Brussels and resumed his participation in the triennial Salons, where he exhibited for several years before his style fell out of favour in favour of a new generation of Romantics – a situation also experienced at the same time by his contemporary François-Joseph Navez (1787–1869).
Van Brée was in Rome when he painted this languid nude, drawing clear inspiration from Giorgione (1477) and Titian (1510). From the former, he adopts the positioning of the legs and the arm that curves up over the head (Fig. 1). From the latter, he takes the alert face, the gaze turned towards the viewer, the understated adornments, the flowers, and the little dog curled up at her feet (Fig. 2). Positioned as if mirroring these odalisques, the young woman stands out for her more mischievous air and her more slender physique. Whilst red reigns supreme in Venetian art, it is a luminous, warm yellow that dominates in our painter’s work. Here, there is no landscape, no palace, but the hushed sanctuary of a single room over which the Virgin and Child watch. Concealed behind a curtain—which is conveniently drawn—this clearly arouses in the infant Jesus an irrepressible desire to draw closer to the naked body. Somewhat provocative in his approach, Van Brée confirms that he is the heir to the training he received. He thus presents a smooth, glossy, almost porcelain-like painting, resolutely inspired by classical art, whose coldness he subtly tempers through the delicacy and charming expressiveness of his figures.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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