Jan Swerts (25 December 1820, Antwerp - 11 August 1879, Marienbad) was a Belgian painter of historical subjects and portraits who worked on many publicly funded commissions. He played a major role in introducing German Romantic historical painting into Belgium. His fresco's using oil paint heralded a revival of a colouristic style derived from Rubens and Flemish Baroque painting combined with historical and psychological realism. [1]
Jan Swerts was a student of the leading Antwerp history painter Nicaise De Keyser at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. [2] Here he met Godfried Guffens, another pupil of De Keyser, who became a close friend. The two friends visited Paris together in 1848 where they saw paintings of Victor Orsel, a French follower of Johann Friedrich Overbeck. Overbeck was the leading painter of the German Romantic Nazarene movement, which aimed to revive honesty and spirituality in Christian art. Swerts and Guffens were so impressed by this style of painting that they decided to travel on to Germany where they visited the frescos painted by the Nazarenes.
They left in August 1850 and travelled to Aachen, Köln, Düsseldorf, Remagen, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Prague and Munich. In these various places they met with members of the Nazarene movement who were engaged in various monumental commissions. Finally, they arrived on 12 December 1850 in Rome where Overbeck resided. They returned to Belgium with the intention to implement the ideals of the Nazarenes in Belgium. [3]
Upon their return in Belgium the two friends got married on the same day, 25 October 1852. The following year the two young artists were commissioned to provide the decoration for the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-van-Bijstand-der-Christenenkerk (Church of Our Lady of Assistance to Christians) in Sint-Niklaas, which had been constructed in the early 1840s. The initiative came from a local member of parliament and a local politician and was initially funded by the local community of believers. When funds ran out, the Belgian state provided an annual stipend of 1,500 francs from 1856 to 1861. The funds were part of a scheme by the Belgian Government to promote monumental art in Belgium as it was regarded as useful in promoting nationalism and a revival of the arts in the young Belgian state. [4]
The two artists where the first to receive an official commission for a secular monumental project when the Antwerp city government asked them to paint the walls of the newly restored Old Bourse of Antwerp with depictions of Antwerp's glorious trading past. They were assisted by two students of the Antwerp Academy, the German Otto Schwerdgeburth and Florentinus Claes from Antwerp. [3] These works were destroyed by fire just before the building was to be officially reopened. [4]
Swerts and Guffens were given funds by the Belgian government to attend a large exhibition of German art held in Munich in 1858 with the mission to report back. Their report conveniently concluded that monumental art should be supported as it was linked to religion and science, and was therefore national art. They also published a memoir on their trip to Germany under the title "Souvenirs d'un voyage artistique en Allemagne par J. Swerts et G. Guffens - Peintres d'Anvers" (Remembrances of an artistic trip to Germany by J. Swerts and G. Guffens, painters from Antwerp). [3]
In 1859 Swerts and Guffens organized in Brussels and Antwerp an exhibition of cartons of German masters, which had an important influence on the development of monumental art in Belgium. While they were still working on the murals in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-van-Bijstand-der-Christenenkerk in Sint-Niklaas, Swerts and Guffens started on a mural in the Church of Saint George (Sint-Joriskerk) in Antwerp. This was the largest work that they had undertaken thus far and they worked on the project from 1859 to 1871. [4] The support of the Belgian Government for monumental art was, however, waning as it was not considered to be sufficiently in the Flemish tradition with its vivid colours, life and movement. [3]
Swerts and Godfrey Guffens received many commissions for murals with religious and historical subjects in the period from 1859 and 1871 including for the Saint Quentin Cathedral in Hasselt, the choir of the church of Lanaken, the choir of the Saint Joseph Church and the Saint Barbara Chapel in Louvain, the Chapel of the Aldermen in Ypres and the City Hall of Kortrijk. [3]
When Belgian government commissions dried up, Swerts accepted the post of director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 1874. He was received with enthusiasm. [3] His students in Prague included Vojtěch Bartoněk, Felix Jenewein, Mikoláš Aleš and František Ženíšek. [5] [6] [7] [8]
He met with personal tragedy when a son and his wife died in quick succession. He fell ill while working on murals in St Anne's Chapel in Prague. He died on 11 August 1879 in Marienbad where he had gone for a cure. [3]
The monumental art created by Jan Swerts and Guffens was very influential at the time and contributed to the spread of the Nazarene school's ideas in Belgium and beyond. Their work is now regarded as displaying the strengths and weaknesses of this school of painting: charm, simplicity of line but a cold appearance. [3] The two artists also played a role as advisors on the practices for restoration of medieval art in Belgium. [4]
Jozef Janssens (Sint-Niklaas, 1854 – Antwerp, 1930), a painter of religious and genre paintings as well as of portraits and frescoes was Swerts' pupil in Antwerp in 1872 and was heavily influenced by Swerts’ style. [9]
Philipp Veit was a German Romantic painter and one of the main exponents of the Nazarene movement. It is to Veit that the credit of having been the first to revive the nearly forgotten technique of fresco painting is due.
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld was a German painter, chiefly of Biblical subjects. As a young man he associated with the painters of the Nazarene movement who revived the florid Renaissance style in religious art. He is remembered for his extensive Picture Bible, and his designs for stained glass windows in cathedrals.
The epithet Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th-century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive spirituality in art. The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of clothing and hair style.
Johann Friedrich Overbeck was a German painter and a founder of the Nazarene art movement.
Constant Permeke was a Belgian painter and sculptor who is considered the leading figure of Flemish Expressionism.
Henri Leys, Hendrik Leys or Jan August Hendrik, Baron Leys was a Belgian painter and printmaker. He was a leading representative of the historical or Romantic school in Belgian art and became a pioneer of the Realist movement in Belgium. His history and genre paintings and portraits earned him a European-wide reputation and his style was influential on artists in and outside Belgium.
Jean-François Portaels or Jan Portaels was a Belgian painter of genre scenes, biblical stories, landscapes, portraits and orientalist subjects. He was also a teacher and director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent and the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. He is regarded as the founder of the Belgian Orientalist school. He was praised in his time as the premier painter of 'everyday elegance and feminine grace'. Through his art, teaching and his leadership of the Académie Royale in Brussels he exerted an important influence on the next generation of Belgian artists, including his pupil Théo van Rysselberghe.
František Ženíšek was a Czech painter. He was part of the "Generace Národního divadla", a large group of artists with nationalistic sympathies.
Nicaise de Keyser was a Belgian painter of mainly history paintings and portraits who was one of the key figures in the Belgian Romantic-historical school of painting.
Hendrik Frans Verbrugghen or Hendrik Frans Verbruggen was a Flemish sculptor and draftsman, who is best known for his Baroque church furniture in various Belgian churches.
Antonín Lhota was a Czech painter and art teacher.
Otto Schwerdgeburth was a German painter and engraver who mainly painted historical subjects.
Egide Godfried Guffens was a Belgian painter. He is best known for his monumental religious and historical murals.
Victor Lagye was a Belgian painter and illustrator best known for his genre paintings and history scenes. He participated in various decorative programs commissioned by the Belgian government. In his later years he was active in art education.
Charles de Groux or Charles Degroux was a French painter, engraver, lithographer and illustrator. As he moved to Belgium at a young age and his whole career took place in Belgium he is usually referred to as a Belgian artist. His depictions of scenes from the life of the disadvantaged and lower-class people of his time mark him as the first Belgian social realist painter. These works made him the precursor of Belgian Realist artists such as Constantin Meunier and Eugène Laermans.
Ernest Slingeneyer, Ernest Isidore Hubert Slingeneyer or Ernst Slingeneyer was a Belgian painter of history paintings, portraits, genre scenes and the occasional landscape. Slingeneyer is regarded as one of the last representatives of Romanticism in Belgian painting and of Academism in Romanticism in Belgian art. In his later career he was one of the leading representatives of Orientalism in Belgium. An excellent portraitist, Slingeneyer made portraits of historical figures as well as of well-known figures from his time. Slingeneyer was also a politician and was a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives for the Independists of Brussels, a coalition of personalities bound by their opposition to the Radicalist liberals. As a politician he promoted Academic art and agitated against new artistic currents as promoted by, amongst others, the Société Libre des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.
Albrecht Frans Lieven De Vriendt or Albrecht De Vriendt was a Belgian painter known for his genre scenes, history paintings, interiors and figure paintings. He was also active as an author, publisher and copyist He was also a watercolorist and an etcher. He participated in the monumentalist movement in Belgium and continued the tradition of the Belgian Romantic-historical school long after it had been abandoned in his country and abroad. He was the brother of the painter Juliaan De Vriendt with whom he often collaborated on decorative projects. He was a director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp.
Jozef Marie Aloys Janssens de Varebeke was a Belgian painter, known for his portraits and religious works.
August De Wilde was a Belgian painter.
Karel Aubroeck was a Flemish expressionist sculptor and painter. He is best known for his monumental sculptures such as the equestrian statue of King Albert I in Nieuwpoort and the sculpture group of the Van Raemdonck brothers on the Yser Towers in Diksmuide.
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