1.
Charles Baugniet
–
Charles-Louis Baugniet was a Belgian painter, lithographer and aquarellist. His name remains attached to the lithographing of portraits of famous and lesser-known figures from Belgium, France and he was born in Brussels and attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels during 1827–29, where he studied under Joseph Paelinck and Florent Willems. His first attempts lithography date from 1827, and his reputation grew steadily with the appearance of his first portraits in the magazine LArtiste in 1833 and he collaborated with Louis Huard from 1835 until 1842 in producing a series of portraits of the Belgian House of Representatives. Louis Huard finished only 6 portraits, Baugniet doing the remainder and this was followed in 1836 by a series of 30 portraits of contemporary artists—Les Artistes Contemporains. Included were portraits of Louis Jéhotte, Louis Gallait, Nicaise De Keyser, Jean-Baptiste Madou, Eugène Simonis, Charles-Louis Verboeckhoven, Horace Vernet, Paul Delaroche and Hippolyte Bellangé. He was commissioned to do portraits of the Belgian Royal Family, in 1843 he moved to London where he became a leading society portrait painter, creating a portrait of Prince Albert in 1851. Later he often returned to London to do portraits of such as Charles Dickens. Baugniet also designed the first Belgian postage stamp brought into circulation on 1 July 1849, the stamp depicted Leopold I of Belgium after a painting by Liéven De Winne. Baugniet settled in Paris in 1860, almost overnight the invention and development of photography strangled the traditional market of lithographic portraits, forcing many of Baugniets colleagues to become professional photographers. Baugniet however concentrated on producing paintings and portraits which displayed the elegance of the Second French Empire. He died in Sèvres in 1886, thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. Benezit E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, Paris, Librairie Gründ,1976, rouir Eugène,150 ans de gravure en Belgique, Bruxelles, C. G. E. R. /Meddens,1980, p.8. Berko P. & V. Dictionnaire des peintres belges nés entre 1750 &1875, Bruxelles, Laconti,1981, p.34
2.
Zandvliet
–
Zandvliet is a Belgian town forming part of the Antwerp district of Berendrecht-Zandvliet-Lillo. The place dates back to 1135 when it was known as Santflit, in 1622 the Spaniard Ambrogio Spinola constructed a fortification with seven bastions around Zandvliet, to strengthen the defenses of Antwerp against the northern Netherlands. The project lasted six years and gave the town the appearance of a citadel, at the beginning of the 18th century France drove Spain from Zandvliet after which the fortress became derelict. Traces of the fortress can be seen in the street layout of Conterscherp, Zuidvest. The church in Zandvliet was destroyed during the wars against Spain, after Belgium gained its independence in 1830, J. Bril became the first Belgian mayor of Zandvliet. In 1887 a rail link between Antwerp and Bergen op Zoom also linked to Zandvliet and this line mainly transported sugar beet, but also catered for passengers. In 1958 Berendrecht, Zandvliet and Lillo were incorporated in Antwerp, since the decentralisation of 2000 these three old communities were joined under the name of Bezali, an acronym used by the media. The people of Berendrecht-Zandvliet-Lillo on the hand were proud of the original names. The name Zandvliet became a name, thanks to the 1967 naming of Zandvlietsluis
3.
Antwerp
–
Antwerp is a city in Belgium, the capital of Antwerp province in the region of Flanders. With a population of 510,610, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium and its metropolitan area houses around 1,200,000 people, which is second behind Brussels. Antwerp is on the River Scheldt, linked to the North Sea by the Westerschelde estuary, the Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world, ranking second in Europe and within the top 20 globally. Antwerp has long been an important city in the Low Countries, the inhabitants of Antwerp are nicknamed Sinjoren, after the Spanish honorific señor or French seigneur, lord, referring to the Spanish noblemen who ruled the city in the 17th century. The city hosted the 1920 Summer Olympics, according to folklore, notably celebrated by a statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend about a giant called Antigoon who lived near the Scheldt river. He exacted a toll from passing boatmen, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands, eventually the giant was killed by a young hero named Silvius Brabo, who cut off the giants own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen, akin to Old English hand and wearpan, a longstanding theory is that the name originated in the Gallo-Roman period and comes from the Latin antverpia. Antverpia would come from Ante Verpia, indicating land that forms by deposition in the curve of a river. Note that the river Scheldt, before a period between 600 and 750, followed a different track. This must have coincided roughly with the current ringway south of the city, however, many historians think it unlikely that there was a large settlement which would be named Antverpia, but more something like an outpost with a river crossing. However, John Lothrop Motley argues, and so do a lot of Dutch etymologists and historians, aan t werp is also possible. This warp is a hill or a river deposit, high enough to remain dry at high tide. Another word for werp is pol hence polders, historical Antwerp allegedly had its origins in a Gallo-Roman vicus. Excavations carried out in the oldest section near the Scheldt, 1952–1961, produced pottery shards, the earliest mention of Antwerp dates from the 4th century. In the 4th century, Antwerp was first named, having been settled by the Germanic Franks, the name was reputed to have been derived from anda and werpum. The Merovingian Antwerp was evangelized by Saint Amand in the 7th century, at the end of the 10th century, the Scheldt became the boundary of the Holy Roman Empire. Antwerp became a margraviate in 980, by the German emperor Otto I, in the 11th century Godfrey of Bouillon was for some years known as the marquis of Antwerp. In the 12th century, Norbert of Xanten established a community of his Premonstratensian canons at St. Michaels Abbey at Caloes
4.
Romanticism
–
Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was embodied most strongly in the arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, Romanticism assigned a high value to the achievements of heroic individualists and artists, whose examples, it maintained, would raise the quality of society. It also promoted the individual imagination as a critical authority allowed of freedom from classical notions of form in art, there was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a Zeitgeist, in the representation of its ideas. In the second half of the 19th century, Realism was offered as a polar opposite to Romanticism, the decline of Romanticism during this time was associated with multiple processes, including social and political changes and the spread of nationalism. Defining the nature of Romanticism may be approached from the point of the primary importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist. The importance the Romantics placed on emotion is summed up in the remark of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich that the feeling is his law. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others believed there were laws that the imagination—at least of a good creative artist—would unconsciously follow through artistic inspiration if left alone. As well as rules, the influence of models from other works was considered to impede the creators own imagination, so that originality was essential. The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own work through this process of creation from nothingness, is key to Romanticism. This idea is called romantic originality. Not essential to Romanticism, but so widespread as to be normative, was a strong belief, however, this is particularly in the effect of nature upon the artist when he is surrounded by it, preferably alone. Romantic art addressed its audiences with what was intended to be felt as the voice of the artist. So, in literature, much of romantic poetry invited the reader to identify the protagonists with the poets themselves. In both French and German the closeness of the adjective to roman, meaning the new literary form of the novel, had some effect on the sense of the word in those languages. It is only from the 1820s that Romanticism certainly knew itself by its name, the period typically called Romantic varies greatly between different countries and different artistic media or areas of thought. Margaret Drabble described it in literature as taking place roughly between 1770 and 1848, and few dates much earlier than 1770 will be found. In English literature, M. H. Abrams placed it between 1789, or 1798, this latter a very typical view, and about 1830, however, in most fields the Romantic Period is said to be over by about 1850, or earlier
5.
Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp)
–
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp is an art academy located in Antwerp, Belgium. It is one of the oldest of its kind in Europe and it was founded in 1663 by David Teniers the Younger, painter to the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and Don Juan of Austria. It houses the world-renowned Antwerp Fashion Academy, the Royal Academy developed into an internationally acclaimed institute for Fine Arts, Architecture and Design. From the nineteenth century on, the academy attracted young artists from abroad, irish, German, Dutch, Polish artists looking for a solid classical training found their way to Antwerp. Under the direction of Gustave Wappers and his registrar Hendrik Conscience, the academys significant art collection was exhibited in its own gallery space. By 1890, this gallery would develop into the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, in 1880, a promising young artist Henry Van de Velde enrolled at the Antwerp Academy. He would become one of the pioneering 20th century architects and designers, in 1885 and 1886, Vincent van Gogh was also to spend a short time at the Antwerp academy, prior to his departure to France. In 1885, King Leopold II commissioned the establishment of the National Higher Institute for Fine Arts Antwerp as a unique post graduate program, in 1946, the Architecture program became an independent institute, The National Higher Institute of Architecture. Another key moment in the history of the academy would be 1963, a unique new course ‘Fashion Design’ started. This course was successful from the beginning, but became world leading in the early eighties. “The Antwerp Six” with Dirk Bikkembergs, Walter Van Beirendonck, Marina Yee, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, stylistically extremely diverse, these young friends had a huge impact on the contemporary fashion scene. The fashion program attracted more and more talents from all over the globe, with over 130 students its by far the largest program in the visual arts and design department. In 1995, the Flemish higher educational system faced a radical metamorphosis, the Antwerp Academy and the Henry Van de Velde Institute were included as faculties in a bigger college structure, The University College of Antwerp. However, the Higher Institute of Fine Arts was kept independent, the Academy nowadays offers three distinctive programs, Visual Arts and Design, Conservation studies and a one-year dedicated teachers training. A body of 540 students work in the four buildings located in the heart of the city. As of September 2013, the programs are offered by the Artesis Plantijn Hogeschool Antwerpen, shortly after the founding of Antwerp Academy, three large paintings were executed for its meeting hall. Antwerp, Nurse of Painters, by Theodoor Boeyermans, promotes the citys recent artistic past, portraits of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck watch over students as they practise the arts. At the centre is the allegorical Antverpia pictorum nutrix, chronos accompanies other young students who present their artwork
6.
Mattheus Ignatius van Bree
–
Mattheus Ignatius van Bree was a Belgian painter. He was one of the founders of the school of painting in Belgium. He was first trained from the age of 10 in the art academy. One of his teachers was Petrus Johannes van Regemorter and he became assistant-professor at the Academy and got his own studio in 1794. He left for Paris in 1797 where he studied with François-André Vincent and he participated that year in the Paris Salon and won second prize in the Prix de Rome with his painting The death of Cato in Utica. He returned to Antwerp in 1804 and became a professor at the Antwerp Academy which had just been reopened after its closure by the French occupiers. Van Bree was after the end of French occupation in 1813 a member of the responsible for recovering works of art confiscated by the French and was able to retrieve many works by Rubens. In 1821 he traveled to Italy and visited Florence and Rome with his former pupil Ferdinand de Braekeleer the Elder, in Florence he made in the Uffizi drawings after portraits by Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. In the same year he published his views on art in Leçons de dessin. In 1827 he became director of the Antwerp Academy after the resignation of Willem Jacob Herreyns and he was a member of several overseas art institutions such as the academies of Amsterdam, Rome, Munich and New York. Egide Linnig who studied under van Bree was not happy with the placed on history painting by van Bree. His style also became more reminiscent of Rubens in its use of looser brushwork and his historical paintings were often of large dimensions and earned him a high reputation in his lifetime. He also painted more small-scale and colourful oil sketches and it is these works that are now most esteemed and he also made a few sculptures. Among his most important works are The Patriotism of the Burgomaster Van der Werft, in the city hall of Leyden, and The Death of Rubens, in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
7.
Genre painting
–
Genre painting, also called genre scene or petit genre, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known member of his family. In this case it would depend on whether the work was likely to have intended by the artist to be perceived as a portrait—sometimes a subjective question. The depictions can be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist, because of their familiar and frequently sentimental subject matter, genre paintings have often proven popular with the bourgeoisie, or middle class. Genre subjects appear in many traditions of art and these were part of a pattern of Mannerist inversion in Antwerp painting, giving low elements previously in the decorative background of images prominent emphasis. The generally small scale of these paintings was appropriate for their display in the homes of middle class purchasers. Often the subject of a painting was based on a popular emblem from an Emblem book. The merry company showed a group of figures at a party, other common types of scenes showed markets or fairs, village festivities, or soldiers in camp. In Italy, a school of painting was stimulated by the arrival in Rome of the Dutch painter Pieter van Laer in 1625. He acquired the nickname Il Bamboccio and his followers were called the Bamboccianti, whose works would inspire Giacomo Ceruti, Antonio Cifrondi, jean-Baptiste Greuze and others painted detailed and rather sentimental groups or individual portraits of peasants that were to be influential on 19th-century painting. Spain had a tradition predating The Book of Good Love of social observation and commentary based on the Old Roman Latin tradition, practiced by many of its painters and illuminators. More than a later, the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya used genre scenes in painting and printmaking as a medium for dark commentary on the human condition. His The Disasters of War, a series of 82 genre incidents from the Peninsular War, with the decline of religious and historical painting in the 19th century, artists increasingly found their subject matter in the life around them. In French art this was known as the Troubador style, in the second half of the century interest in genre scenes, often in historical settings or with pointed social or moral comment, greatly increased across Europe. Other 19th-century English genre painters include Augustus Leopold Egg, George Elgar Hicks, William Holman Hunt, scotland produced two influential genre painters, David Allan and Sir David Wilkie. Wilkies The Cottars Saturday Night inspired a work by the French painter Gustave Courbet. Famous Russian realist painters like Vasily Perov and Ilya Repin also produced genre paintings, in Germany, Carl Spitzweg specialized in gently humorous genre scenes, and in Italy Gerolamo Induno painted scenes of military life. Subsequently the Impressionists, as well as such 20th-century artists as Pierre Bonnard, Itshak Holtz, Edward Hopper, other notable 19th-century genre painters from the United States include George Caleb Bingham, William Sidney Mount, and Eastman Johnson
8.
National Academy Museum and School
–
Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, and others to promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition. The Academy is an honorary organization, a school. The school offers instruction, master classes, intensive critiques, various workshops. The museum houses a collection of over 7,000 works of American art from the 19th, 20th. The Academy has been located at several locations over the years, notable among them was a building built during 1863-1865, designed by architect P. B. Wight in Venetian Gothic style, which was modeled on the Doges Palace in Venice, another locale was at West 109th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan. Since 1942 the academy has occupied a mansion that was the home of sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington and Archer Milton Huntington at Fifth Avenue. The original founders of the National Academy of Design were students of the American Academy of the Fine Arts, samuel F. B. Morse and other students set about forming the drawing association to meet several times each week for the study the art of design. Still, the association was viewed as a dependent organization of the American Academy, an attempt was made to reconcile the difference and maintain a single academy by appointing six of the artists from the association as directors of the American Academy. When four of the nominees were not elected, however, the frustrated artists resolved to form a new academy, among the teaching staff were numerous artists, including Will Hicok Low, who taught from 1889 to 1892. The famous American poet William Cullen Bryant also gave lectures, architect Alexander Jackson Davis taught at the Academy. Painter Lemuel Wilmarth was the first full-time instructor Gulian C, verplanck, a Congressman and a man of letters, gave an address at the school in 1824. and Silas Dustin was a curator
9.
Gustaf Wappers
–
Egide Charles Gustave, Baron Wappers was a Belgian painter. His work is considered to be Flemish and he signed his work with the Flemish form of his name. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, the Romantic movement with its new ideas about art and politics was astir in France. While political, this remarkable work revolutionized the direction of Flemish painters, Wappers was invited to the court at Brussels, and was favoured with commissions. In 1832 the city of Antwerp appointed him Professor of Painting and he exhibited his masterpiece, Episode of the Belgian Revolution of 1830 or rather Episode of the September Days of 1830 on the Grand Place of Brussels, at the Antwerp Salon in 1834. He was subsequently appointed painter to Leopold, King of the Belgians, at the death of Matthieu-Ignace Van Brée in 1839 he was elevated to director of the Antwerp Academy. Louis Philippe gave him a commission to paint a painting for the gallery at Versailles. He finished the work in 1844, the year that he received the title of baron from Belgian king Leopold I. After retiring as director of the Antwerp Academy, he settled in 1853 in Paris, media related to Gustave_Wappers at Wikimedia Commons
10.
Louis Gallait
–
Louis Gallait was a Belgian painter. He lay at the basis of a revival of painting in Belgium. He earned his reputation especially with the painting of Charles Vs abdication. Gallaits works were esteemed because of their realism, faithfulness of the costumes and he was also a distinguished portrait painter. Gallait was born in Tournai, Hainaut, Belgium in 1810 and he first studied in his native town under Philippe Auguste Hennequin. In 1832 his first picture, Tribute to Caesar, won a prize at the Salon of Ghent and he then went to Antwerp to continue his studies under Mathieu Ignace van Brée, and in the following year exhibited at the Brussels Salon Christ Healing the Blind. This picture was purchased by subscription and placed in the Tournai Cathedral, Gallait next went to Paris, and he sent to the Belgian Salons Job on the Dunghill, Montaigne Visiting Tasso in Prison, and — to the Brussels Gallery in 1841 — The Abdication of Charles V. The latter painting, which had been commissioned by the Belgian government, was hailed as a triumph, the painting was exhibited together with a painting entitled the Compromise of Nobles by another young Belgian painter, Edouard de Bièfve. Official invitations induced him to settle at Brussels, dumortier and The Plague at Tournay, all in the Brussels gallery. A Gipsy Woman and her Children was painted in 1852 and he also served as the director and president of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. M. Gallait has all the gifts that may be acquired by work, taste, judgment and determination and his art is that of a man of tact, a skilled painter, happy in his dramatic treatment but superficial. No doubt, this Walloon artist, following the example of the Flemings of the Renaissance and the treatment of Belgian classical painters, unfortunately, misled by contemporary taste, he could not conceive of it other than as dressed in sentimentality. As an artist employed by the State, he exercised considerable influence, in 1849 he became correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, and the next year he became associated member. Gallait died in Brussels in 1887,1881, Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Gallait. P. & V. Berko, Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 &1875, Knokke 1981, p.300, works by or about Louis Gallait at Internet Archive Media related to Louis Gallait at Wikimedia Commons
11.
Edgard Farasyn
–
Edgard Pierre Jozef Farasyn was a Belgian painter, watercolorist, engraver and etcher who specialized in seascapes, landscapes, genre scenes and interior portraits. In his later life, he interested in depicting fishermen. He received his training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 1885, he became a teacher at the Academy, six years later, he was a founding member of the secessionist group De XIII and was also active in Weest U Zelve, a group devoted to promoting Flemish art. He initially focused on painting children, but switched to plein air painting after becoming a teacher and he mostly worked in and around Antwerp, but also went to Mol and the Kempen region and occasionally ventured into Zeeland. His early works are mostly done in dark, sombre colors but his canvas lightened considerably after he visited Koksijde and decided to portray the lives of the fishermen and he gave many exhibitions, winning awards at the Sydney International Exhibition and the Brussels International. He retired from teaching in 1924, W. G. Flippo, Lexicon of the Belgian Romantic painters, International Art Press, Antwerp,1981 Léon Tombu, Peintres et Sculpteurs Belge à lAube du XXe Siècle. Lemonnier, Lécole belge de peinture, 1830-1905, Brussels, Labor,1991
12.
Godfried Guffens
–
Egide Godfried Guffens was a Belgian painter. He is best known for his religious and historical murals. When he was fifteen, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under Nicaise de Keyser. He later took a trip to Italy to see the works of Michelangelo, while there, he met Johann Friedrich Overbeck, a member of the Nazarene movement, who had a decisive influence on his style. This prompted him to visit Germany and study the new types of painting that were developing there. His largest mural is in the church of Saint George in Antwerp, some other prominent murals include those in the Town Halls of Kortrijk and Hasselt, the choir and bapistry of Saint Quentins Cathedral and the choir of Saint Ursulas Church in Lanaken. His mural in the Ypres Cloth Hall was lost during World War I and he was a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. He was also a member of the Institut de France. In 1900, he suffered a stroke while teaching a class at the Academy, Hasselt and Schaerbeek both have streets named after him. 1885, Commander in the Order of Leopold, E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Paris,1976. ISBN 2-70-000156-7 ArtNet, Works by Guffens
13.
Edouard Hamman
–
Edouard Jean Conrad Hamman was a Belgian painter and engraver who specialized in portraying scenes from the lives of famous artists, scholars and the nobility. He grew up in a well-to-do family and his father was the Town Receiver and secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in Ostend and created a fund for the benefit of needy fishermen and their families. Little is known of this period in his life, but he became a student of François-Antoine Bossuet at an early age. In the school-year 1837/38, he was enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and he was also a private student in the studio of Nicaise de Keyser. It is believed that he was a student of Hendrik Leys, although Leys had no students and he had his formal debut at the Ghent Salon of 1838 with an unspecified interior scene. His exposure to other artists there led to him being influenced by the style of Louis Gallait, unfortunately, the mural was destroyed during World War II. At this time he also did illustrations for books by the publishing firm of J. E. Buschmann. In 1846 he moved to Paris for further studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, in 1849 he made the traditional study trip to Italy. He eventually achieved fame in France. Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie were fond of his work, in later years he turned more to genre painting and portraits, including one of King Norodom of Cambodia, which brought him great distinction in that country. His son, Édouard Michel Ferdinand Hamman became a painter of some note. 1885, Officer in the Order of Leopold, a. P. De Mirimonde, Edouard Hamman et l’histoire de la musique en peinture, in, Jaarboek van het Kon. Museum voor Schone Kunsten te Antwerpen,1973, pgs, 269-299 N. Hostyn, Kunstschilder Edouard Hamman. Hai – Hammock, Berlin-New York,2011 ArtNet, Two pages of paintings by Hamman Arcadja, Works by Hamman
14.
George du Maurier
–
George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a Franco-British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Sir Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of writers Angela du Maurier and he was also the father of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and grandfather of the five boys who inspired J. M. Barries Peter Pan. George du Maurier was born in Paris, the son of Louis-Mathurin du Maurier and Ellen Clarke and he was brought up to believe that his aristocratic grandparents fled France during the Revolution, leaving vast estates behind in France, to live in England as émigrés. However, du Mauriers grandfather, Robert-Mathurin Busson, was actually a tradesman who left Paris in 1789 to avoid fraud charges, Du Maurier studied art in Paris, and moved to Antwerp, Belgium, where he lost vision in his left eye. He consulted an oculist in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he met his future wife and he followed her family to London, where he married Emma in 1863. The couple settled in Hampstead around 1877, first in Church Row and they had five children, Beatrix, Guy, Sylvia, Marie Louise and Gerald. He became a member of the staff of the British satirical magazine Punch in 1865 and his most common targets were the affected manners of Victorian society, the bourgeoisie and members of Britains growing Middle Class in particular. His most enduringly famous cartoon, True Humility, was the origin of the good in parts. In an earlier cartoon, du Maurier had coined the expression bedside manner by which he satirized actual medical skill, another of du Mauriers notable cartoons was of a videophone conversation in 1879, using a device he called Edisons telephonoscope. Among several other novels he illustrated was Misunderstood by Florence Montgomery in 1873, owing to his deteriorating eyesight, du Maurier reduced his involvement with Punch in 1891 and settled in Hampstead, where he wrote three novels. His first, Peter Ibbetson, was a modest success at the time and later adapted to stage and screen, most notably in Peter Ibbetson and his second novel Trilby, was published in 1894. It fitted into the horror genre which was undergoing a revival during the fin de siècle. The story of the artists model Trilby OFerrall, transformed into a diva under the spell of the evil musical genius Svengali. The plot inspired Gaston Lerouxs 1910 novel Phantom of the Opera, Du Maurier eventually came to dislike the persistent attention given to his novel. The third novel was a long, largely autobiographical work entitled The Martian, George du Maurier was a close friend of Henry James, the novelist, their relationship was fictionalised in David Lodges Author, Author. He was buried in St John-at-Hampstead churchyard in Hampstead parish in London. Peter Ibbetson –1891, adapted in 1935 by Henry Hathaway into a film starring Gary Cooper, also adapted as an opera by Deems Taylor Trilby –1894, the Martian –1897 Social Pictorial Satire-1898 Trilbymania Richard Kelly. The Art of George du Maurier, routledge & Kegan Paul, London,1969
15.
Karel Ooms
–
Karel Ooms was a Belgian painter of portraits, genre paintings and history paintings. He was also known for his Orientalist scenes and Oriental landscapes, Karel Ooms was born in Dessel as the youngest son of a large peasant family. At school his talent for drawing was discovered. When he was twelve his hometown provided financial support allowed him to study at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. One of his teachers at the Academy was Nicaise de Keyser, one of the key figures in the Belgian Romantic-historical school of painting, after graduating from the Academy 1865 Karel Ooms was welcomed with pomp in his home town Dessel. He painted two altar pieces for the local church Saint Nicolas to express his gratitude to his city, Karel Ooms settled as an independent artist in Antwerp around 1871. He quickly established a reputation as a portrait painter, in addition he received commissions for religious paintings and history paintings. Karel Ooms gained particular recognition with two paintings he made for the criminal courtroom of the Antwerp Courthouse. His renown extended across the borders as Karel Ooms won awards for his oeuvre in Prague, Amsterdam, Adelaide Melbourne, Karel Ooms made many travels in Europe and the Middle East. His travels to Palestine and Egypt are documented through the paintings he made on location. In the Middle East he found abundant inspiration for his Orientalist paintings, late in life, in 1897, he married Baroness Edith van Eersel, widow of Baron Emile della Faille, a member of a prominent Belgian aristocratic family. His wife was well-off and an art lover and collector. Soon after their marriage, the couple went to live in Ediths villa in Cannes so that Ooms, however, he died at the age of 55 in Cannes on 18 March 1900 as a result of stress following a nightly break-in into his Cannes home. His remains were transferred to Antwerp and interred at the Schoonselhof cemetery, Karel Ooms worked in various genres including portrait painting, history painting, landscape painting and genre painting. He is now known for his Orientalist and genre paintings. Portraits make up one third of Ooms known output of 220 works. The sitters for his portraits were mainly from the bourgeoisie in Antwerp. His self-portrait of 1896 depicts the artist holding his palette, the colours on the palette show his preference for earthy pigments, which was typical for artists like him who worked in the academic tradition
16.
Ferdinand Pauwels
–
Wilhelm Ferdinand Pauwels was a Belgian history painter who lived and worked in Germany. From 1842 to 1850, he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, under Gustave Wappers and Nicaise De Keyser, in 1852 he won the Prix de Rome for his painting Coriolanus at Rome and was able to spend four years studying in Italy. From 1862 to 1872, he was the Professor of History Painting at the Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School, leon Pohle and Max Liebermann were among his students there. This period was productive for him and he completed seven large wall panels at the Wartburg. After a short stay in Belgium, he returned to Germany where he became a Professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and his students there included Ludwig von Hofmann, Osmar Schindler, Paul Thumann and Oskar Zwintscher. During this period he executed six large historical wall panels at the Fürstenschule in Meissen. From 1870 to 1881, he produced what was considered his greatest work, twelve frescoes in the part of the Ypres Cloth Hall. They depicted scenes of Ypres history from 1187 to 1383, unfortunately, these works were destroyed during World War I. Holger Fischer, Professor Ferdinand Pauwels und sein Schülerkreis, regina Wesche, Die Ausmalung der Tuchhalle in Ypern durch Ferdinand Pauwels 1870-1871. Eine Studie zur belgischen Geschichtsmalerei des 19, jahrhunderts, Masters thesis, Universität Kiel 1997. 19th Century Realism, works by Pauwels Ferdinand Pauwels on Stadtwiki Dresden
17.
Jan Swerts
–
Jan Swerts was a Belgian painter of historical subjects and portraits who worked on many publicly funded commissions. He played a role in introducing German Romantic historical painting into Belgium. His fresco’s using oil paint heralded a revival of a style derived from Rubens. Jan Swerts was a student of the leading Antwerp history painter Nicaise De Keyser at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, here he met Godfried Guffens, another pupil of De Keyser, who became a close friend. The two friends visited Paris together in 1648 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, in these various places they met with members of the Nazarene movement who where engaged in various monumental commissions. Finally, they arrived on 12 December 1850 in Rome where Overbeck resided and they returned to Belgium with the intention to implement the ideals of the Nazarenes in Belgium. Upon their return in Belgium the two friends got married on the day,25 October 1852. The initiative came from a 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 a stipend of 1,500 francs from 1856 to 1861. They were assisted by two students of the Antwerp Academy, the German Otto Schwerdgeburth and Florentinus Claes from Antwerp and these works were destroyed by fire just before the building was to be officially reopened. Swerts and Guffens were given funds by the Belgian government to attend an exhibition of German art held in Munich in 1858 with the mission to report back. Their report conveniently concluded that art should be supported as it was linked to religion and science. They also published a memoir on their trip to Germany under the title Souvenirs dun voyage artistique en Allemagne par J. Swerts et G. Guffens - Peintres dAnvers. In 1859 Swerts and Guffens organized in Brussels and Antwerp an exhibition of cartons of German masters, 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 in Antwerp. This was the largest work that they had thus far. 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 colours, life
18.
Eliza Turck
–
Eliza Turck, was an English portrait, genre, bird and landscape painter, illustrator and writer. Turck was born in Islington in London, the daughter of Herman Jochim Christian Turck, banker, eliza showed an early aptitude for art and received lessons from her mother who was a talented amateur artist. She was educated initially in Germany and on her return to England, in 1848, afterwards, she took lessons in oil painting from William Gale, and, in 1852, entered the figure class of the Female School of Art in Gower Street for a further year. She studied for 14 months, from 1859 to 1860, at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, and was given instruction by Nicaise de Keyser. Turck exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1854, and also at the British Institution, Suffolk Street and her work included genre paintings, literary subjects, coastal scenes, architecture, birds and miniatures, painted in oil or watercolour. Her works at the Royal Academy included ‘Rus in Urbe’,1858, ‘Lady Dorothy in Breton Costume’,1880 and ‘In St. Mark’s, Venice’,1885. I am rather puzzled myself to know how her relationship to her remarkable godmother could best be indicated so as to leave her still a real little lady in a real kitchen. But I am glad to see this sternly realistic treatment, at all events’ and she exhibited at the International Exhibition in 1871, and her watercolours of Brittany were shown at Rogers Gallery, Maddox Street in 1879
19.
Jan Verhas
–
Born in Dendermonde as the younger brother of painter Frans Verhas. His wife was the aunt of Louise Ponselet-Saintenoy and he studied at the Academy of Dendermonde and the Academy in Antwerp, finishing with the Belgian Prix de Rome in 1860. The Belgian government commissioned him to travel to Venice where he made the painting Velleda et la Bataille de Callao in 1862, the next four years, he lived in Binche, where he married. Verhas was a regular of the Salons of the time, winning a class medal in the Paris Salon Exposition of 1881. He was made a Chevalier in the Legion of Honor in 1881, Jan Verhas died in Schaarbeek in 1896. Paintings by Jan Verhas can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, P. & V. Berko, Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 &1875, Knokke 1981, p. 745-747. P. & V. Berko, 19th Century European Virtuoso Painters, Knokke 2011, p.519, media related to Jan Verhas at Wikimedia Commons
20.
Charles Verlat
–
Michel Marie Charles Verlat was a Belgian painter from Antwerp. He was a pupil of Nicaise de Keyser, and studied at the Antwerp Academy, in 1842 appeared his first important picture, Pippin the Short Killing a Lion. About 1849 he went to Paris, where he worked under Ary Scheffer, in 1855 he won a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle at Paris with his Tiger Attacking a Herd of Buffaloes, and in 1858 exhibited Le Coup de collier at the Paris Salon. In 1866 he was appointed director of the Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School, soon after his return to Antwerp in 1875 he visited Palestine, and brought back a large number of interesting pictures, including Vox Populi, The Tomb of Jesus, and The Flight into Egypt. In 1885 he was appointed director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and he executed a series of original etchings, and published in 1879 a book on the Antwerp Academy. 1881, Commander in the Order of Leopold, P. & V. Berko, Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 &1875, Knokke 1981, p. 754-757. P. & V. Berko, 19th Century European Virtuoso Painters, Knokke 2011, p.519, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Verlat, Michel Marie Charles. Media related to Charles Verlat at Wikimedia Commons
21.
Battle of the Golden Spurs
–
The Battle of the Golden Spurs, also known as the Battle of Courtrai, was a battle fought between the Kingdom of France and the County of Flanders at Kortrijk in modern-day Belgium on 11 July 1302. In 1302, after years of unrest, the people of Flanders revolted against French rule. King Philip IV of France immediately organized an expedition under Count Robert II of Artois to put down the rebellion, meanwhile, the civic militias of several Flemish cities were assembled to counter the expected French attack. When the two armies met outside the city of Kortrijk, the mounted French knights proved unable to defeat the well-trained Flemish foot militia on a battlefield particularly unsuited for cavalry. The result was a rout of the French nobles, who suffered losses at the hands of the Flemish. The battle was an early example of an all-infantry army overcoming an army that depended on the shock attacks of mounted knights. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Battle of the Golden Spurs became an important cultural point for the Flemish Movement. In 1973, the date of the battle was chosen to be the date of the holiday of the Flemish Community in Belgium. The origins of the Franco-Flemish War can be traced back to the accession of Philip IV the Fair to the French throne in 1285. Philip hoped to control over the County of Flanders, a semi-independent polity notionally part of the Kingdom of France. In the 1290s, Philip attempted to support from the Flemish aristocracy and succeeded in winning the allegiance of some local notables. He was opposed by a led by the Flemish knight Guy of Dampierre who attempted to form a marriage alliance with the English against Philip. In Flanders, however, many of the cities were split into factions known as the Lilies, who were pro-French, and the Claws, led by Pieter de Coninck in Bruges, in June 1297, the French invaded Flanders and gained some rapid successes. The English, under Edward I, withdrew to face a war with Scotland and the Flemish in 1297 signed a temporary armistice, in January 1300, when the truce expired, the French invaded Flanders again and by May were in total control of the county. Guy of Dampierre was imprisoned and Philip himself toured Flanders making administrative changes, after Philip left Flanders, unrest broke out again in the Flemish city of Bruges directed against the French governor of Flanders, Jacques de Châtillon. On 18 May 1302, rebellious citizens who had fled Bruges returned to the city and murdered every Frenchman they could find, with Guy of Dampierre still imprisoned, command of the rebellion was taken by John and Guy of Namur. Most of the towns of the County of Flanders agreed to join the Bruges rebellion except for the city of Ghent which refused to take part. Most of the Flemish nobility also took the French side, fearful of what had become an attempt to power by the lower classes
22.
Brussels
–
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
23.
Hendrik Conscience
–
Henri or Hendrik Conscience was a Belgian author. He is considered the pioneer of Dutch-language literature in Flanders, writing at a time when Belgium was dominated by the French language among the classes, in literature. Conscience fought as a Belgian revolutionary in 1830 and was a writer in the Romanticist style popular in the early 19th century. Over the course of his career, he published over 100 novels and novellas, after his death, with the decline of romanticism, his works became less fashionable but are still considered as classics of Flemish literature. Hendriks mother was a Fleming, Cornelia Balieu, and was illiterate, when, in 1815, the French abandoned Antwerp after the Congress of Vienna, Pierre Conscience stayed behind. He was an eccentric and he took up the business of buying and breaking-up worn-out vessels, which the port of Antwerp was full of after the peace. The child grew up in an old shop stocked with marine stores, to which the father afterwards added a collection of unsellable books and his mother died in 1820, and the boy and his younger brother had no companion other than their grim and somewhat sinister father. In 1826 Pierre Conscience married again, this time a much younger than himself. Here Pierre bought a farm with a large garden. Here, while their father was buying ships in faraway harbours, at the age of seventeen Hendrik left his fathers house to become a tutor in Antwerp and to continue his studies, which were soon interrupted by the Belgian Revolution of 1830. He volunteered in the Belgian revolutionary army, served at Turnhout and fought the Dutch near Oostmalle, Geel, Lubbeek, after the Ten Days Campaign of 1831 he stayed in army barracks at Dendermonde, becoming a non-commissioned officer, rising to the rank of sergeant-major. In 1837 he left the service and returned to civilian life, having been thrown in with young men of all walks of life he became an observer of their habits. He considered writing in the Dutch language although at the time that language was believed to be unfit for literature as French was the language of the educated, French was the language used by the politicians who founded Belgium in 1830. It was this language that had chosen to be Belgiums national language. It was spoken by the class in Belgium. Nothing had been written in Dutch for years when Belgiums independence became a fact in 1831, separating Belgium, the divide between the two languages was no more to be bridged. If I ever gain the power to write, I shall throw myself head over ears into Flemish composition and his poems, however, written while he was a soldier, were all in French. He received no pension when he was discharged, and returning to his fathers house without a job, a passage in Guicciardini fired his fancy, and straightaway he wrote a series of vignettes set during the Dutch Revolt, with the title In t Wonderjaer
24.
Battle of Worringen
–
The Battle of Worringen was fought on June 5,1288, near the town of Worringen, which is now the northernmost borough of Cologne. The conflict arose after Duke Waleran IV of Limburg, a scion of the Lotharingian Ardennes-Verdun dynasty, had died without heirs in 1279. His duchy was inherited by his daughter Ermengarde, who had married Count Reginald I of Guelders about 1270 and her husband claimed the Limburg heritage and in 1282 had his ducal title recognized by the German king Rudolf I. As far as the succession in the line was denied. An agreement seemed possible, nevertheless, Count Adolf VIII of Berg preceded his Ardennes relatives when in September 1283 he sold his claims to the mighty Reginar duke John of Brabant. Duke John intended to enlarge his Brabant territory and re-unite the former Duchy of Lower Lorraine in the northwest of the Holy Roman Empire, Limburg was also economically important as it stretched along the major Via Regia trade route to Aachen and Cologne on the Rhine river. Though Brabant held the title of Duke of Lothier since 1190, it had been solely honorific, the Limburg nobles therefore refused to accept Johns overlordship, when his forces invaded the duchy. Between 1283 and 1288, the conflict was delayed by several smaller confrontations between both sides, none of them decisive, meanwhile, most of the other local powers chose sides. Foremost Siegfried II of Westerburg, the Archishop of Cologne, suspiciously eyed Johns increasing power in the Lower Lorraine lands, in May 1288, Henry of Luxembourg had led a significant army into the Cologne region. Numerous vassals and allies joined his forces and Reinald of Guelders finally sold his rights to Limburg to him and this angered Duke John of Brabant, who in turn started a campaign against Reinald. In Brühl, he met with the Mark and Berg troops by the end of the month, together they marched against Worringen, a castle on the Rhine held by the Archbishop of Cologne. John laid siege to the fortress, supported by the Cologne citizens, Siegfried, witnessing the estrangement of his subjects, likewise started marching. He and Henry of Luxembourg gathered their troops at Neuss and moved to Brauweiler Abbey, on the early morning of June 5, they departed for Worringen at the head of their troops. In the earliest phases of the battle, John of Brabant and Henry of Luxembourg met in a fight, in which Henry. Soon after that, Siegfried entered the battle and in an advance was able to beat off the Berg troops. In mid afternoon, the Berg and Mark troops, along with the Cologne citizens, had gathered again, the battle ended in a victory for Brabant when Reinald of Guelders was captured by Daniel van Bouchout and Lord Walram of Valkenburg had to retreat. The archbishop was taken prisoner by Duke John of Brabant and delivered to Adolf of Berg, the number of deaths at the battle of Worringen is estimated at 1100 on the Guelders side and 40 on the Brabant side. The blood toll on the house of Luxembourg was particularly high, Archbishop Siegfried was imprisoned for over a year at Schloss Burg, before he paid a ransom and agreed to Count Adolfs demands
25.
Prussian Academy of Arts
–
The academy had a decisive influence on art and its development in the German-speaking world throughout its existence. For an extended period of time it was also the German artists society and training organisation and it dropped Prussian from its name in 1945 and was finally disbanded in 1955 after the 1954 foundation of two separate academies of art for East Berlin and West Berlin in 1954. Those two separate academies merged in 1993 to form Berlins present-day Academy of Arts, most artists were associated with the academy as members. Membership was an honorary distinction extended to prominent domestic Prussian artists, a deliberative body of senators was chosen from the membership -- some elected, and some automatically included due to other rank. The academy was not a school, although it had associations with educational institutions, the scope was expanded in 1704 to include Mechanical Sciences. The academys first director was Swiss painter Joseph Werner, in 1833 the academy added a fine arts division, and a music division in 1835. Emil Fuchs studied at the Academy under Fritz Schaper and Anton von Werner, Otto Geyer studied there from 1859-1864. Sculptor Wilhelm Neumann-Torborg studied at the academy from 1878 until 1885, under Otto Knille, in 1885, he won the Academys Rome Scholarship for his thesis, The Judgment of Paris. Anna Gerresheim studied there from 1876 for four years in the class under Karl Gussow. Oskar Frenzel studied there between 1884 and 1889 under Paul Friedrich Meyerheim and Eugen Bracht and he was from 1904 until his death a member of the Academy. Painter Friedrich Wachenhusen studied there in 1889 under Eugen Bracht, painter and sculptor Paul Wallat studied there from 1902-1909 under Otto Brausewetter and Carl Saltzmann. On December 29,1906 he received the award of the Ginsberg Foundation of the Berlin Academy, käthe Kollwitz became the first woman elected to the Prussian Academy, but with the coming to power of Adolf Hitler in 1933 she was expelled because of her beliefs and her art. Name changes, 1882–1918 Königliche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin 1918–1926 Akademie der Künste zu Berlin 1926–1931 Preußische Akademie der Künste zu Berlin 1931–1954 Preussische Akademie der Künste
26.
Legion of Honour
–
The Legion of Honour, full name National Order of the Legion of Honour, is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction, Chevalier, Officier, Commandeur, Grand Officier and Grand-Croix. The orders motto is Honneur et Patrie and its seat is the Palais de la Légion dHonneur next to the Musée dOrsay, in the French Revolution, all French orders of chivalry were abolished, and replaced with Weapons of Honour. The Légion however did use the organization of old French orders of chivalry, the badges of the legion also bear a resemblance to the Ordre de Saint-Louis, which also used a red ribbon. Napoleon originally created this to ensure political loyalty, the organization would be used as a facade to give political favours, gifts, and concessions. The Légion was loosely patterned after a Roman legion, with legionaries, officers, commanders, regional cohorts, the highest rank was not a grand cross but a Grand Aigle, a rank that wore all the insignia common to grand crosses. The members were paid, the highest of them extremely generously,5,000 francs to an officier,2,000 francs to a commandeur,1,000 francs to an officier,250 francs to a légionnaire. Napoleon famously declared, You call these baubles, well, it is with baubles that men are led, do you think that you would be able to make men fight by reasoning. That is good only for the scholar in his study, the soldier needs glory, distinctions, rewards. This has been quoted as It is with such baubles that men are led. The order was the first modern order of merit, under the monarchy, such orders were often limited to Roman Catholics, and all knights had to be noblemen. The military decorations were the perks of the officers, the Légion, however, was open to men of all ranks and professions—only merit or bravery counted. The new legionnaire had to be sworn in the Légion and it is noteworthy that all previous orders were crosses or shared a clear Christian background, whereas the Légion is a secular institution. The jewel of the Légion has five arms, in a decree issued on the 10 Pluviôse XIII, a grand decoration was instituted. This decoration, a cross on a sash and a silver star with an eagle, symbol of the Napoleonic Empire, became known as the Grand Aigle. After Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804 and established the Napoleonic nobility in 1808, the title was made hereditary after three generations of grantees. Napoleon had dispensed 15 golden collars of the legion among his family and this collar was abolished in 1815. The Légion dhonneur was prominent and visible in the French Empire, the Emperor always wore it and the fashion of the time allowed for decorations to be worn most of the time
27.
Order of Leopold (Belgium)
–
The Order of Leopold is one of the three current Belgian national honorary orders of knighthood. It is the highest order of Belgium and is named in honour of King Leopold I and it consists of a military, a maritime and a civilian division. The maritime division is awarded to personnel of the merchant navy. The decoration was established on 11 July 1832 and is awarded for bravery in combat or for meritorious service of immense benefit to the Belgian nation. The Order of Leopold is awarded by royal decree, when Belgium became independent of the Netherlands, there was a urgent need to create a national honour system that could serve as a diplomatic gift. The first King of the Belgians, Leopold I of Belgium, two years after the independence, the young King officially founded the dynastic Order of Leopold. The king approved the colour and grades both civil and military, and the official motto L’Union fait la Force/Eendracht maakt Macht, in the early 19th century, the court sent the Grand Cordon as a diplomatic gift. The founder gave his French family grand Cordons as wedding gifts, people who fought in the Belgian revolution became members in great numbers. In 1838 the King lost his right to create members, this was then on the responsibility of the foreign office. At the end of his reign the major political elite were members of the order, King Leopold II gifted major Belgian artists, generals and clergy into the order. At the end of World War I, the Order became internationally recognised for its famous members, the order was bestowed as a personal marriage gift by the King Leopold II to Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern and Ernst Gunther, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein. In 1878 the King named several diplomatic dignitaries Grand cordon in honour of his wedding celebration. In 1919 King Albert granted all Lieutenant-Generals of the Belgian Army the Grand Cordon in Brussels, one of the rare Ladies in the order was Countess Renée de Merode. The Order can be bestowed post-mortem, for example, Emile Verhaeren received the Grand Cordon after his death, people can lose the order, for example what happened during World War I with Alfred Wotquenne. After the Second World War, the Order of Leopold was bestowed on the officers of foreign militaries who had helped to liberate Belgium from the occupation of German forces. Most illustrious was the grand Cordons with Palms given by the King to Sir Winston Churchill, the medal was also granted to Karel Bossart in 1962, and Josip Broz Tito in 1970. Annually, there are two days when the King normally grants membership, on April 8 and on November 15. During state visits, the Order of Leopold is the most important diplomatic gift of the state, in 2015 some protest was noted when King Philippe offered the Grand Cordon to President Erdogan of Turkey during his state visit in Belgium
28.
Leopold I of Belgium
–
Leopold I was a German prince who became the first King of the Belgians following Belgian independence in 1830. He reigned between July 1831 and December 1865, Charlotte died in 1817, but Leopold continued to enjoy considerable status in Britain. After the Greek War of Independence, LeopoId was offered the position of King of Greece but turned it down, instead, Leopold accepted the kingship of the newly established Kingdom of Belgium in 1831. The Belgian government offered the position to Leopold because of his connections with royal houses across Europe. Leopold took his oath as King of the Belgians on 21 July 1831 and his reign was marked by attempts by the Dutch to recapture Belgium and, later, by internal political division between liberals and Catholics. As a result of the ambiguities in the Belgian Constitution, Leopold was able to expand the monarchs powers during his reign. He also played an important role in stopping the spread of the Revolutions of 1848 into Belgium and he died in 1865 and was succeeded by his son, Leopold II. Leopold was born in Coburg in the tiny German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in modern-day Bavaria on 16 December 1790 and he was the youngest son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf. In 1826, Saxe-Coburg acquired the city of Gotha from the neighboring Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and gave up Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen, becoming Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Ln 1795, at just five years old, Leopold was given a commission of the rank of colonel in the Izmaylovsky Regiment, part of the Imperial Guard. Seven years later, he received a promotion to the rank of Major General, when French troops occupied the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, Leopold went to Paris where he became part of the Imperial Court of Napoleon. Napoleon offered him the position of adjutant, but Leopold refused, instead, he went to Russia to take up a military career in the Imperial Russian cavalry, which was at war with France at the time. He campaigned against Napoleon and distinguished himself at the Battle of Kulm at the head of his cuirassier division, in 1815, by the time of the final defeat of Napoleon and, aged 25, reached the rank of lieutenant general. Leopold received British citizenship in 1815, on 2 May 1816, Leopold married Princess Charlotte of Wales at Carlton House in London. Charlotte was the legitimate child of the Prince Regent George. The same year he received a commission to the rank of Field Marshal. On 5 November 1817, Princess Charlotte gave birth to a stillborn son and she herself died the next day following complications. Despite Charlottes death, the Prince Regent granted Prince Leopold the British style of Royal Highness by Order in Council on 6 April 1818, from 1828 to 1829, Leopold had several-months long affair with the actress Caroline Bauer, who bore a striking resemblance to Charlotte
29.
Leopold II of Belgium
–
Leopold II was the second King of the Belgians, known for the founding and exploitation of the Congo Free State as a private venture. Born in Brussels as the son of Leopold I and Louise of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the Belgian throne in 1865. His was the longest reign of any Belgian monarch and he died without surviving male issue, the current Belgian king descends from his nephew and successor, Albert I. Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State and he used explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the nations of Europe authorized his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants. From the beginning, however, Leopold essentially ignored these conditions and he ran the Congo using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal enrichment. He used great sums of the money from this exploitation for public and he donated the private buildings to the state before his death, to preserve them for Belgium. Under his regime millions of the Congolese people died, modern estimates range from 1 to 15 million, human rights abuses under his regime contributed significantly to these deaths. Leopold was born in Brussels on 9 April 1835 and he was the second child of the reigning Belgian monarch, Leopold I, and his second wife, Louise, the daughter of King Louis Philippe of France. The French Revolution of 1848, which spared Belgium, had forced Louis Philippe to flee to the United Kingdom, the royal families of Belgium and the United Kingdom were linked by numerous marriages, and were additionally both descended from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Louis Philippe died two years later, in 1850, Leopolds fragile mother was deeply affected by the death of her father, and her health deteriorated. She died that year, when Leopold was 15 years old. Three years later, in 1853 at the age of 18, Marie Henriette was a cousin of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, and granddaughter of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor through her father, Austrian archduke Joseph. Marie Henriette was lively and energetic, and endeared herself to the people by her character and benevolence and she was also an accomplished artist and musician. She was passionate about horseback riding to the point that she would care for her horses personally, some joked about this marriage of a stableman and a nun, the shy and withdrawn Leopold referred to as the nun. Four children were born of marriage, three daughters and one son, also named Leopold. The younger Leopold died in 1869 at the age of nine from pneumonia after falling into a pond and his death was a source of great sorrow for King Leopold, who lost his only heir. The marriage had become unhappy, and the couple separated completely after a last attempt to have another son, in 1895 Marie Henriette retreated to Spa
30.
Olga Nikolaevna of Russia
–
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia, later Queen Olga of Württemberg, was a member of the Russian imperial family who became Queen consort of Württemberg. She was the daughter of Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia. She was thus a sister of Alexander II of Russia and she married Charles I of Württemberg, with whom she had no children. Grand Duchess Olga of Russia was born on 11 September 1822 in St. Petersburg and her father was Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, the son of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Empress Maria of Russia. Her mother was Empress Alexandra of Russia, the daughter of King Frederick William III of Prussia, Olga grew up as part of a close family of eight sisters and brothers. Attractive, cultured and intelligent, she was considered to be one of the most eligible princesses in Europe and she spoke several languages, and was fond of music and painting. Olga met Crown Prince Charles of Württemberg in early 1846 in Palermo and her parents wished that she make a dynastic marriage, especially since her siblings Alexander, Maria and Alexandra had married relatively insignificant royal partners. Olga gave her consent to Charles proposal of marriage only a few meetings. The wedding was held in great splendor on 13 July 1846 at the Peterhof Palace, the couple came back from Russia to Württemberg on 23 September. They lived mostly in the Villa Berg in Stuttgart and in the Kloster Hofen in Friedrichshafen, the couple had no children, probably because of Charles’ homosexuality. Olga’s husband became the object of several times for his closeness with various men. The most notorious of these was the American Charles Woodcock, a former chamberlain whom Charles elevated to Baron Savage in 1888, the resulting outcry forced Charles to renounce his favourite. In 1863, Olga and Charles adopted Olgas niece, Grand Duchess Vera of Russia, on 25 June 1864, after the death of his father, Charles acceded the throne and became the third king of Württemberg, making Olga the fourth queen of Württemberg. The new king was enthroned on 12 July 1864, Olga dedicated her life to social causes. She was especially interested in the education of girls, and also supported wounded veterans, a childrens hospital of Stuttgart, the Olgahospital, was named for her in 1849, and an order of Protestant nursing nuns of Stuttgart, the Olgaschwesternschaft, was named for her in 1872. These charitable enterprises made her popular among her subjects, much more so than her husband. Olga was fond of agriculture and was interested in all happenings on her farming estate which was located in the German Volhynia colony of Russia. Olga was also interested in natural science and collected minerals systematically
31.
Petrarch
–
Francesco Petrarca, commonly anglicized as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarchs rediscovery of Ciceros letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Renaissance, Petrarch is often considered the founder of Humanism. In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarchs works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio, Petrarch would be later endorsed as a model for Italian style by the Accademia della Crusca. Petrarchs sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and he is also known for being the first to develop the concept of the Dark Ages. This standing back from his time was possible because he straddled two worlds—the classical and his own modern day, Petrarch was born in the Tuscan city of Arezzo in 1304. He was the son of Ser Petracco and his wife Eletta Canigiani and his given name was Francesco Petracco. The name was Latinized to Petrarca, Petrarchs younger brother was born in Incisa in Val dArno in 1307. Dante was a friend of his father, Petrarch spent his early childhood in the village of Incisa, near Florence. He spent much of his life at Avignon and nearby Carpentras. He studied law at the University of Montpellier and Bologna with a lifelong friend, because his father was in the profession of law he insisted that Petrarch and his brother study law also. Petrarch however was interested in writing and Latin literature and considered these seven years wasted. Additionally he proclaimed that through legal manipulation his guardians robbed him of his small property inheritance in Florence and he protested, I couldnt face making a merchandise of my mind, as he viewed the legal system as the art of selling justice. Petrarch was a letter writer and counted Boccaccio among his notable friends to whom he wrote often. After the death of their parents, Petrarch and his brother Gherardo went back to Avignon in 1326 and this work gave him much time to devote to his writing. With his first large work, Africa, an epic in Latin about the great Roman general Scipio Africanus. On April 8,1341, he became the poet laureate since antiquity and was crowned by Roman Senatori Giordano Orsini. He traveled widely in Europe, served as an ambassador, and has called the first tourist because he traveled just for pleasure. During his travels, he collected crumbling Latin manuscripts and was a mover in the recovery of knowledge from writers of Rome
32.
William II, King of the Netherlands
–
William II was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg. William II was the son of William I and Wilhelmine of Prussia, when his father, who up to that time ruled as sovereign prince, proclaimed himself king in 1815, he became Prince of Orange as heir apparent of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. With the abdication of his father on 7 October 1840, William II became king, during his reign, the Netherlands became a parliamentary democracy with the new constitution of 1848. William II was married to Anna Pavlovna of Russia and they had four sons and one daughter. William II died on 17 March 1849 and was succeeded by his son William III, Willem Frederik George Lodewijk was born on 6 December 1792 in The Hague. He was the eldest son of King William I of the Netherlands and his maternal grandparents were King Frederick William II of Prussia and his second wife Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt. William spent his youth in Berlin at the Prussian court, where he followed a military education, after this, he studied at the University of Oxford and had a splendid military career close to Wellington. William II had a string of relationships with men and women. The homosexual relationships that William II had as crown prince and as king were reported by journalist Eillert Meeter, the king surrounded himself with male servants whom he could not dismiss because of his abominable motive for hiring them in the first place. Though not yet 20, the prince, according to the customs of the time, was made lieutenant colonel on 11 June 1811. On 8 September 1812 he was made an aide-de-camp to the Prince Regent and his courage and good nature made him very popular with the British, who nicknamed him Slender Billy. He returned to the Netherlands in 1813 when his father became sovereign prince, on 8 July 1814, he was promoted to lieutenant-general in the British Army, and on 25 July to general. As such, he was officer of the Allied army in the Low Countries when Napoleon I of France escaped from Elba in 1815. As a sign of gratitude for what the Dutch throne styled his victory at Waterloo, in response, Siborne was accused by Lieutenant-General Willem Jan Knoop of many inaccuracies and contradictions. An inspection of the archives of Siborne by General Francois de Bas in 1897 confirmed the use of sources and numerous miscounts. In 1814, William became briefly engaged with Princess Charlotte of Wales, only daughter of the Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom and his estranged wife Caroline of Brunswick. The engagement was arranged by the Prince Regent, but it was broken because Charlottes mother was against the marriage, on 21 February 1816 at the Chapel of the Winter Palace in St. On 17 February 1817 in Brussels, his first son Willem Alexander was born, already in 1819, he was blackmailed over what Minister of Justice Van Maanen termed in a letter his shameful and unnatural lusts, presumably bisexuality
33.
Netherlands Institute for Art History
–
The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in documentation, archives, and books on Western art from the late Middle Ages until modern times, all of this is open to the public, and much of it has been digitized and is available on their website. The main goal of the bureau is to collect, categorize, via the available databases, the visitor can gain insight into archival evidence on the lives of many artists of past centuries. The library owns approximately 450,000 titles, of which ca.150,000 are auction catalogs, there are ca.3,000 magazines, of which 600 are currently running subscriptions. Though most of the text is in Dutch, the record format includes a link to library entries and images of known works. The RKD also manages the Dutch version of the Art and Architecture Thesaurus, the original version is an initiative of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California. Their bequest formed the basis for both the art collection and the library, which is now housed in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Though not all of the holdings have been digitised, much of its metadata is accessible online. The website itself is available in both a Dutch and an English user interface, in the artist database RKDartists, each artist is assigned a record number. To reference an artist page directly, use the code listed at the bottom of the record, usually of the form, https, for example, the artist record number for Salvador Dalí is 19752, so his RKD artist page can be referenced. In the images database RKDimages, each artwork is assigned a record number, to reference an artwork page directly, use the code listed at the bottom of the record, usually of the form, https, //rkd. nl/en/explore/images/ followed by the artworks record number. For example, the record number for The Night Watch is 3063. The Art and Architecture Thesaurus also assigns a record for each term, rather, they are used in the databases and the databases can be searched for terms. For example, the painting called The Night Watch is a militia painting, the thesaurus is a set of general terms, but the RKD also contains a database for an alternate form of describing artworks, that today is mostly filled with biblical references. To see all images that depict Miriams dance, the associated iconclass code 71E1232 can be used as a search term. Official website Direct link to the databases The Dutch version of the Art and Architecture Thesaurus
34.
Biografisch Portaal
–
The Biografisch Portaal is an initiative based at the Huygens Institute for Dutch History in The Hague, with the aim of making biographical texts of the Netherlands more accessible. As of 2011, only information about deceased people is included. The system used is based on the standards of the Text Encoding Initiative, access to the Biografisch Portaal is available free through a web-based interface. The project is an undertaking by ten scientific and cultural bodies in the Netherlands with the Huygens Institute as main contact. In February 2012, a new project was started called BiographyNed to build a tool for use with the Biografisch Portaal that will link biographies to events in time. The main goal of the project is to formulate ‘the boundaries of the Netherlands’. List of Dutch people Official website
35.
Integrated Authority File
–
The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
.jpg)
Media related to Nicaise De Keyser at Wikimedia Commons