Teacher of:
Edmond Jean Baptiste
Tschaggeny (1818-1873).
Awarded La Croix de la Légion d'honneur
Awarded l'ordre de Léopold de Belgique
Awarded al Croix de Fer d'Allemagu
Trained as sculptor under his father
Born Warneton, Belgium
Died Bruxelles, Belgium
Eugène-Joseph Verboeckhoven was born in
Warneton on June 8, 1798 and was the son and
student of Barthelemy Verboeckhoven – the
Belgian sculptor. Eugène Verboeckhoven began his career as
a sculptor, but quickly turned his
attentions to painting. Eugène Verboeckhoven studied with
Balthazar Ommeganck (1755 – 1826), who was
considered one of the finest sheep artists
of his time, and took classes at the Academy
in Gent under A. Voituron.
Verboeckhoven’s success was immense and his
paintings found buyer’s before they were
finished; it is even said that his talents
were greater that his teacher B. Ommeganck.
During his long and successful career Eugène
Verboeckhoven traveled and exhibited his paintings throughout
Europe. Eugène Verboeckhoven made his debut at the Gent Salon
in 1820, where he received great praise, and
continued to exhibit there throughout his
lifetime. Eugène Verboeckhoven was also a frequent exhibitor
at exhibitions in Brussels, Paris, London,
Saint Petersburg and Antwerp.
Verboeckhoven established a studio in
Brussels where he taught numerous artists
and collaborated with many of the more
important artists of his day; including De
Jonghe, De Noter, Verwee, and
Koekkoek.
Among the many honors Eugène Verboeckhoven received were the
Legion of Honour, Order of Leopold, Order of
the Christ of Portugal, and the Iron Cross.
Eugène Verboeckhoven died in 1881.
Examples of his painting can be seen in numerous
museum collections including those in
Amsterdam; Antwerp; Berlin; Brussels; Leeds;
Liverpool; London; Nantes; Oslo; and Gent.
Verboeckhoven began drawing and sculpting as
a young child. In 1815 his family moved to
Ghent, where Eugène Verboeckhoven attended the Academy from
1816 to 1818 with support from the sculptor
Albert Voituron (1787-1847) and later by a
Ghent patron, Ferdinand Van der Haegen.From
1818 Verboeckhoven was a pupil of
Balthasar-Paul Ommeganck, whose classical
pastoral landscapes became a model for his
own paintings, such as the Landscape with
Cattle and A Cowherd by a Tree on display at
the Rijkmuseum in Amsterdam and Halting
Place.
In 1827 Eugène Verboeckhoven moved to Brussels with
his family, and soon thereafter was made a
director of the Musee de Bruxelles. Thanks to
his initiative, the pictures in Antwerp
Cathedral, including a number of significant
works by Peter Paul Rubens, were saved when
the town came under fire in
1832.Verboeckhoven became a teacher at the
Academie Royale in Brussels in 1845, and his
pupils there included Louis-Pierre Verwee
(1807-77), his son, Alfred Jaques Verwee,
and the brothers Charles Tschaggeny
(1815-94) and Edmond Tschaggeny
(1813-73).Verboeckhoven frequently painted
the animals as part of landscapes by J. B.
Klombeck, Jean-Baptiste De Jonghe, Henri Van
Assche,
Barend Cornelis Koekkoek and
Louis-Pierre Verwee.
Eugène Verboeckhoven is deemed to be one of
the foremost animal artists of the
nineteenth century.In Verboeckhoven’s work
animals often bear human characteristics and
are reminiscent of bourgeois portraits of
the time.In his book on Eugène Verboeckhoven, Berko
writes “he could have been called the
“Raphael of sheep”, for his rams are so well
drawn, arrogant and proud; his ewes
surrounded by graceful lambs, look gentle
and complacent as ewes do, and all his
pastoral scenes are bathed in a warm,
pleasing and golden light.Eugène
Verboeckhoven was a remarkable painter of
horses, goats and game; Eugène Verboeckhoven also painted
small figures on foot or on horseback,
playing scrupulous attention to detail; the
gun, the powder flask, the hunter’s gaiters,
down to the picturesque hat, the threadbare
overcoat, the shepherd’s crook, and of
course the last-born baby lamb under the
shepherd’s arm.”
In 1834 the greatest Dutch Romantic
landscape painter of all, B.C. Koekkoek,
came with his wife to live in Kleve. In 1841
Koekkoek founded an Academy in Kleve and
Klombeck and his uncle were among the first
members. This was to have a most profound
and lasting influence on Klombeck who came
to be regarded as one of Koekkoek’s finest
pupils. Klombeck exhibited his landscapes at
the Kleve Academy and also in Nijmagen.
Between 1843 and 1856 Eugène Verboeckhoven was a frequent
participant in international salons,
including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague,
Dresden and Berlin.
Klombeck became a leading member of the
Romantic Scool and Eugène Verboeckhoven was the foremost
representative of the Kleve Academy when
B.C. Koekkoek died in 1862. Romantic motifs
such as prominent trees and ruins, stormy
weather and figures fighting against the
elements, played an important part in
Klombeck’s oeuvre. Compositions with
diagonal elements, such as tracks and
streams disappearing into the background,
are features strongly reminiscent of the
works of
Koekkoek and which Klombeck often
featured in his paintings.
It is thought that Klombeck was introduced
to the great Belgian animal and figure
painter Eugène Verboeckhoven by B.C.
Koekkoek, who had himself collaborated with
the artist in 1844. Klombeck first worked
with Eugène Verboeckhoven in 1856 and frequently
did so thereafter. This painting, dated
1859, was painted when both artists were at
the height of their careers. Klombeck’s
landscape supplies a wealth of traditional
motifs and detail and the figures and
animals have been exquisitely executed by
the acknowledged master of that genre,
Eugène Verboeckhoven. |