Eugène Boch

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Portrait of Eugène Boch (The Poet)

Vincent van Gogh, 1888

Oil on canvas

60 × 45 cm

Musée d'Orsay

Eugène Boch (1 September 1855 – 3 January 1941) was a Belgian painter, born in Saint-Vaast, Hainaut, and the younger brother of Anna Boch, a founding member of Les XX.

Born into a wealthy dynasty of manufacturers of fine china and ceramics, still active today under the firm of Villeroy & Boch, Eugène Boch enrolled in the private atelier of Léon Bonnat in Paris, in 1879. Since 1882, when Bonnat closed his atelier, he studied at the atelier of Fernand Cormon. Paintings of him where admitted to the Salon in 1882, 1883 and 1885.

In 1888, he was introduced by Dodge MacKnight to Vincent van Gogh.

In 1892 he settled in Monthyon (Seine-and-Marne), not far from Paris. In 1909, he married Anne-Marie Léonie Crusfond (?-1933), in 1910 they moved to their recently erected chalet "La Grimpette", where both lived until their death.

Like his sister Anna Boch, Eugène supported artists of talent, but without money, for example Emile Bernard, whom he met at the Atelier Cormon, or like Paul Gauguin. Or he exchanged works, as with Van Gogh. Thus little by little, an important collection of contemporary art came together. Besides his own portrait Eugène Boch owned a second Van Gogh Painting.

Like his sister Anna, Eugène Boch spent a large part of the funds, which they owed to their father's, Victor Boch, Business Success, on promoting other artists. They bought pictures from virtually all leading contemporaries of their time, the majority of whom were also their friends.

When Eugène Boch died in 1936, he bequeathed The Poet - that is Van Gogh's title for his portrait of Eugène Boch, which Boch received from Johanna van Gogh-Bonger in accordance to the last will of Vincent and Theo - to the Louvre. Today the painting can be seen in the Paris Musee d Orsay.

His collection remained in the family until 1996, when an important part was sold at auction in Paris.

[edit] Literature

Boch, Anna; Eugène Boch (1994). Hommage à Anna et Eugène Boch. Musée de Pontoise. OCLC 31175453, LCCN 95179953. 

Faider-Thomas, Thérèse (1971). Anna Boch und Eugène Boch: Werke aus den Anfängen der modernen Kunst. Mettlach, Villeroy & Boch. OCLC 420158.  (Catalog of an exhibition held at the Moderne Galerie, Saarland-Museum, Saarbrücken, May 6-June 6, 1971)