Painting Signed Jean-baptiste Van Eycken

Painting on panel representing an interior scene signed Jean-Baptiste Van Eycken, or Jan Baptist Van Eycken, was a Belgian religious and history painter, born in Brussels on September 16, 1809, and died in Schaerbeek on December 19, 1853 ( at age 44). Biography[edit | modify the code] Jean-Baptiste Van Eycken is the son of Corneille Van Eycken and Élise Cordemans. He practiced his parents' profession, a baker, until 1829, the year of his father's death. He entered the Brussels Academy in 1830, from which he graduated after winning the grand prize for drawing after nature in 1835. In August 1831, he was introduced to painting in the class of François-Joseph Navez (1787-1869). He executed a Holy Family, the Holy Women at the Sepulcher and a Saint Sebastian. In January 1837, he left to train in Paris thanks to a scholarship from the Belgian government and the city of Brussels1. He stayed there for a year and received advice from Paul Delaroche and Jean-Victor Schnetz. In 1837, the city of Liège bought him a Christ in the Tomb for its museum and a Good Samaritan. He then left for Rome in February 1838 where he met Ingres and was impressed by Fra Angelico and Raphael. He returned to Belgium in February 1839 where he painted a large painting, the Clemency of Titus, which earned him the appointment of professor at the Brussels Academy. On July 1, 1840, he was appointed corresponding member of the Société des Beaux-Arts de France. The province of Brabant awarded him a gold medal. He obtained a gold medal at the Paris exhibition. In the same year, he executed the painting Saint Louis de Gonzague instructing the poor in hospitals for the church of Monceau-sur-Sambre. He married on June 4, 1840 with Julie-Anne-Marie Noël, but who died in 1843. At the request of Mr. Willaert, parish priest of the Notre-Dame de la Chapelle2 church, he produced two paintings: Rachat des Christian slaves, Saint Boniface. After the death of his wife, this parish priest commissioned from him the fourteen paintings of the Stations of the Passion of Our Lord produced between 1844 and 1846. These last paintings were presented in September 1847 at the Brussels Museum and earned him a decorated with the order of Leopold. At the 1848 exhibition, he presented two paintings The Prisoner's Wife and Saint Cecilia. The Abundance painting earned him a vogue success which was bought by the Queen of the Belgians who gave it to Queen Victoria. He became a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium (Classe des Beaux-Arts) on September 22, 1848 thanks to his talent as a history painter. He became interested in mural painting and went to study it in Germany with Peter von Cornelius and Wilhelm von Kaulbach who taught him the German process of Wasserglass. Back in Belgium in 1850, he experimented with mural painting in the parish priest Willaert's church using different processes, including one of his invention, on the ceiling for 18 months. The inauguration was made on June 4, 1852. 19th century gilded stucco frame