Pieter-frans De Noter (1779-1842), Heuvelpoort. Ink And Wash Drawing

Pieter-Frans De Noter, Heuvelpoort. Ink and wash drawing. Signed "De Noter" in the lower left corner. Dated and located: "te Gent 1814". 247 x 187 mm. Wove paper. Condition: Slight creases. Provenance: Belgian private collection. Pieter-Frans De Noter (1779–1842) (Pierre-François de Noter) Walem – Ghent, Belgian School. Pieter-Frans de Noter, known as the Younger, was the son of Pieter-Frans De Noter, architect, known as the Elder. He entered the Academy of Mechelen and received his initial training as a sculptor under Jean François Van Geel (1756–1830). There, he learned to model from nature. The incursion of the French army in 1793 or 94 (varies according to the sources) disrupted the continuation of his studies (De Saint-Genois, Serrure, Blommaert and Van Lokeren 1843: 181; Coekelberghs and Loze 1985: 323). After this episode, he worked with his father and Guillaume Herreyns (1743-1827) on the decoration of the Temple of Reason, established by the French in the church of Saint Peter and Paul in Mechelen (Coekelberghs and Loze 1985: 323). He also worked as a draftsman for calico printing works in Ghent, then as a wood engraver (Hippert and Linnig 1879: 725; Coekelberghs and Loze 1985: 323). In 1810, he settled permanently in Ghent with his brother (Coekelberghs and Loze 1985: 323) and in 1811, he devoted himself fully to painting. From that moment on, he regularly participated in the Salons of Ghent, Brussels, Mechelen, Antwerp and later Douai, Lille, Kortrijk, Boulogne (Coekelberghs and Loze 1985: 323). In 1813, he received an encouragement medal at the Brussels Landscape Competition, the first prize for painting and the second prize for landscape at the 1820 competition of the Royal Academy of Ghent, and medals of honor at the Douai Salons in 1819, 1822, and 1823, at the Lille Salon in 1822, and at Cambrai in 1826 and 1828 (De Bast 1823: 109; Balkema 1844: 227). In 1820 and 1835, he received medals of honor from the Ghent Society of Fine Arts. From 1819 to 1842, he participated in the exhibitions of living masters in Amsterdam and The Hague (Catalogues of Living Masters). He travelled to Holland, France and Switzerland in 1821 where he produced several views for Baron Boyman (De Bast 1823: 109; Piron 1860: 280). In 1824, he became a member of the Amsterdam Academy. He was appointed professor in 1822 at the Royal Academy of Drawing in Ghent, where he taught until his death in 1842 (Balkema 1844: 227; De Saint-Genois, Serrure, Blommaert and Van Lokeren 1843: 183; Coekelberghs and Loze 1985: 323). His daughters devoted themselves to flower painting, and his son Herman-Auguste to landscape painting (Coekelberghs and Loze 1985: 323). The drawing we are offering for sale depicts a view of the Heuvelpoort, a now-vanished gate of the city of Ghent, Belgium. It was erected in 1253-54, rebuilt in 1578-79 before being modified once again in 1676. It was demolished in 1827, shortly after our drawing was made in 1814 (Depestel 2009). The drawing is a wash drawing in a style characteristic of Pieter-Frans De Noter, which can be illustrated by another drawing from the collections of the Groeninge Museum in Bruges (Fig. 11). The Heuvelpoort is also the subject of a painting by De Noter, created in collaboration with Eugène-Joseph Verboeckhoven (1798-1881), and held at the STAM, City Museum of Ghent, under number A2019.08.