Antoine Wiertz (1806 – 1865) Belgian
La belle Rosine – Two young girls “1847
Wiertz died in his studio. His remains were embalmed in accordance with Ancient Egyptian burial rites and buried in a vault in the municipal cemetery of Ixelles.
Showing early promise, he studied at the Academy of Art in Antwerp under Herreybs and Van Brée, and later in Rome where he achieved second prize in the prestigious Prix de Rome, a competition he would eventually win in 1830.
Opinions about the artist himself are conflicting, ranging from visionary, eccentric, to meglomaniacal. If there is any agreement about Wiertz and his oeuvre, it is that his single-mindedness and considerable self-confidence produced some utterly distinctive paintings on unusual subjects that are not much like anybody else’s.
During the late 1820s he visited Paris, studying the work of his idol, Rubens, in the Louvre, while earning enough to feed himself by painting quick portraits.
He later said that he painted the portraits for bread and the religious and historical subjects for honour. Often on a huge scale, his canvases range from traditional religious scenes to the erotic, grotesque and disturbing visions depicted in his most arresting work. After his death, his Brussels studio became the Wiertz Museum.
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