Théophile Behaeghel (1795-1858) - Interior Scene, The Play Of Art, Circa 1820
Artist: Théophile Behaeghel (1795 -1858)
Oil on canvas.
Signed and located "Behaeghel, Paris" (written upside down on a note that fell to the floor in the lower right corner of the painting).
Dimensions: 44 x 53 cm. Framed: 63 x 72 cm.
Théophile Behaeghel was born in Ypres, Belgium, in 1875. He moved to Paris at a young age, where he attended the studios of Jacques-Louis David, Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, Jean-Louis Demarne, Jean-Bernard Duvivier, and, more specifically, Pierre Prévost. He was appointed director of the Academy of Lectoure (Gers) in 1822. Among other works, the painter created portraits of Charles X and the German poet and theorist Friedrich von Schiller. He also produced several self-portraits in etchings.
The scene takes place in a bourgeois Parisian interior. The room is furnished with an appreciation for beautiful objects. Furniture in the style of the period and objets d'art sit side by side, harmonizing the symmetrical composition: a sculpture (a reference to the Apollo Belvedere) rests on the mantelpiece, a vase sits atop a writing desk, and two paintings hang high above, flanking the window. The attention to detail evokes the meticulousness of Dutch painting. Two figures punctuate the scene. The first sits at her desk, the second is perched on a chair. The young woman is working on her watercolors, while the boy, balanced on a chair, gazes outside through a telescope. She raises her head and looks at us, as if a relative or servant had entered the room and distracted her from her work—as if the young woman, a figure painted in a picture, were becoming aware of her fictional nature. As a spectator of the simulated painting, she observes the amateur viewer and invites them into the work. The window structures the work and gives it its meaning: it is both a sign of the separation between interior and exterior space, and of the opening onto a landscape inaccessible to the viewer's eye. The boy becomes the interpreter of her gaze: turned outward, he offers us a glimpse of what we cannot see. In the spirit of Friedrich's Romanticism, the painter paints the window to construct the void that leaves room for our imagination.
Exhibitions:
• Lille Salon: 1822, no. 528, Interior of a Village Kitchen; 1825, no. 817, A Hospitaller Sister Teaching Children.
• Douai Salon: 1826, no. 18, The Entrance to Caesar's Baths at Cauterets; no. 19, An Old Man Cooking, Light Effects Captured in the Pyrenees.
• Bernard Palissy in his studio, n.d., Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Agen.
• Portrait of a prosecutor, 1834, coll. p., Paris. Bibliography:
• Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, vol. II, Librairie Gründ, reissued 1976, p. 579 • Paul Mesplé, “Behaeghel, a painter from Lectoure?”, Bulletin de la Société Archéologique et Historique du Gers, October 1964, p. 473
• Les Salons retrouvés, Éclats de la vie artistique dans la France du Nord, 1815-1848, II, exh. cat., Cité de la dentelle et de la mode,
Musées des Beaux-Arts, Musée de la Chartreuse, Calais, Dunkerque, Douai, 1993, p. 11
Signed and located "Behaeghel, Paris" (written upside down on a note that fell to the floor in the lower right corner of the painting).
Dimensions: 44 x 53 cm. Framed: 63 x 72 cm.
Théophile Behaeghel was born in Ypres, Belgium, in 1875. He moved to Paris at a young age, where he attended the studios of Jacques-Louis David, Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, Jean-Louis Demarne, Jean-Bernard Duvivier, and, more specifically, Pierre Prévost. He was appointed director of the Academy of Lectoure (Gers) in 1822. Among other works, the painter created portraits of Charles X and the German poet and theorist Friedrich von Schiller. He also produced several self-portraits in etchings.
The scene takes place in a bourgeois Parisian interior. The room is furnished with an appreciation for beautiful objects. Furniture in the style of the period and objets d'art sit side by side, harmonizing the symmetrical composition: a sculpture (a reference to the Apollo Belvedere) rests on the mantelpiece, a vase sits atop a writing desk, and two paintings hang high above, flanking the window. The attention to detail evokes the meticulousness of Dutch painting. Two figures punctuate the scene. The first sits at her desk, the second is perched on a chair. The young woman is working on her watercolors, while the boy, balanced on a chair, gazes outside through a telescope. She raises her head and looks at us, as if a relative or servant had entered the room and distracted her from her work—as if the young woman, a figure painted in a picture, were becoming aware of her fictional nature. As a spectator of the simulated painting, she observes the amateur viewer and invites them into the work. The window structures the work and gives it its meaning: it is both a sign of the separation between interior and exterior space, and of the opening onto a landscape inaccessible to the viewer's eye. The boy becomes the interpreter of her gaze: turned outward, he offers us a glimpse of what we cannot see. In the spirit of Friedrich's Romanticism, the painter paints the window to construct the void that leaves room for our imagination.
Exhibitions:
• Lille Salon: 1822, no. 528, Interior of a Village Kitchen; 1825, no. 817, A Hospitaller Sister Teaching Children.
• Douai Salon: 1826, no. 18, The Entrance to Caesar's Baths at Cauterets; no. 19, An Old Man Cooking, Light Effects Captured in the Pyrenees.
• Bernard Palissy in his studio, n.d., Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Agen.
• Portrait of a prosecutor, 1834, coll. p., Paris. Bibliography:
• Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, vol. II, Librairie Gründ, reissued 1976, p. 579 • Paul Mesplé, “Behaeghel, a painter from Lectoure?”, Bulletin de la Société Archéologique et Historique du Gers, October 1964, p. 473
• Les Salons retrouvés, Éclats de la vie artistique dans la France du Nord, 1815-1848, II, exh. cat., Cité de la dentelle et de la mode,
Musées des Beaux-Arts, Musée de la Chartreuse, Calais, Dunkerque, Douai, 1993, p. 11
18 000 €
Period: 19th century
Style: Other Style
Condition: Good condition
Width: 53 cm
Height: 44 cm
Reference (ID): 1720370
Availability: In stock
Print
