Louis Dubois (painter)

The Storks, 1858, now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
The Lady with Bouquet, 1854-1855, now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

Louis Dubois, a Belgian painter, was born in 1830 in Brussels. He painted both landscapes and portraits, and occasionally genre and still-life subjects. In his style he was naturalistic in the extreme, his portraits having much of the vigorous life and colour of Frans Hals.

Louis Dubois belonged to a group of artists who, in the style of the second half the 19th Century, rebelled against the traditional painting of the past in favor of the style of this period. With the painters Théodore Baron, Louis Artan, Edmond Lambrichs, F. Foudin, on March 1, 1868, he became one of the founders of La Société Libre des Beaux-Arts, the society was officially established in 1868 as "Comité de Salut Public revolutionnaire, pour la libération de l'Art" according to Lucien Solvay. Rebellious such as those in the school of Courbet, they scorned the rules of the Academy and the aesthetics currently accepted; the artists of the "Free Society for the Fine Arts" freely and uniquely interpreted nature and reality, without following a common discipline, and stated their motto: "Liberté et Sincerité" and thus started a vehement controversy.

To make known and spread their realist philosophy, in 1871 they created "L'Art Libre" an art and literary journal under Leon Dommartin's direction; it was published on the 1st and 15th of each month (the first was published on December 15, 1871).

Louis Dubois, as the principal illustrator and the only painter-editor, was the most argumentative.

Under the pseudonym "Hout" (Dutch translation of Dubois), in his alert, precise style, he let flow his caustic spirit. In his stories, he criticized traditional painting, in his well-respected lampoons, he spoke from the perspective of good sense, logic, sincerity, truth.

On January 1, 1872, he published under the title "Les Biographes et les Biographies" a spiritual critique of his professional enemies, The Romantics of the school of 1830 (published again in "L'Art Moderne, Revue artistique des Arts et de la Litterature" No 24 of the 4th year, Sunday, June 15, 1884.On February 1, and March 1, 1872, "Le Peintre d'Histoire" spoke against past painters of the so-called "Modern Era." On July 15 and August 15, 1872, "Du Portrait" criticized official portraits on natural skins. On September 15 and October 1, 1872, in his article "Du Procédé" he said, "paint as you like . . . provided that you use true tones, in the right places."

On February 11, 1873, after 10 years of publication, the Review underwent a transformation, expanding under the title "L'Art Universel"; Camille Lemonnier became the director. "Hout" the published an article "A propos des peintres du rire" (Frans Hals, Jordeans, Jan Steen, the triad of painters of good spirits).

He is also given credit for the articles signed "Karl Stur," in "L'Art Libre" and in the daily newspaper "La Chronique" (lead article "Causerie"), during the years 1870-1871.

He worked in Paris Thomas Couture's studio, which was active from 1847 to 1863, as did Edourad Manet. He also found himself in the company of Felicien Rops, Charles Hermans, Constantin Meunier, Jules Raeymaeckers, among the attendees of the "Atelier Libre Saint-Luc" in Brussels from 1853 to 1863, then directed by Slingeneyer - an association of young painters gathered to work together.

He exhibited for the first time at the Brussels Exhibition of 1857 where he showed three paintings "Joueurs" (Players), "Embuscade" (Ambush), and "Prêtre allant célébrer la Masse" (Priests going to celebrate Mass).

At an 1860 show, he showed the great work "Les Cigognes" (The Storks), (shown at Spa that same year) painted in 1858, "La Roulette" (both of which today hang in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels) and a study called "Enfant de choeur" (Choir Child) (this remained in his family and is now on display in Maui Hawaii in the home of his great great granddaughter Maureen Vernon Breen); in 1863 "Solitude" (formerly "Le Chevreuil mort [dead Deer]) (also now on display in the Royal Museum in Brussels) shows the dead animal outstretched in the middle of a silent forest.

He considered as his friends: Courbet, Louis Artan, Felicien Rops, Constantin Meunier, Alfred Verwee, Joseph Coosemans. Alfred Verhaeren, Jean-François Taelemans (1851-1931), and Théodore Baron were his students, and Frans Van Leemputten (1850-1915) followed his influence.

Camillle Lemonnier wrote: "Master Louis Dubois, I saved him for last, like a hot pepper for a bored palate. Zounds! What painting! I recognized the power of another with distinction." EdmondAbout said about him, "he was the most distinguished painter working in Belgium."

He died at Brussels in 1880 at the age of 50, of a respiratory illness.

Twenty-one of his paintings and those of his students were displayed at the 1880 Brussels Artistic and Literary Circle; and in 1891 at the Arts and Press Expo. His works were also displayed at the 1905 Belgian Art Retrospective in Brussels and in 1906 at the Belgian Art Exhibition at Guild Hall in London, at the 1907 Belgium Autumn Art Show in Paris, at the 1910 Brussels Show: The Free Aesthetic Evolution of a Landscape (5 panels); in 1920, at Anvers: Chosen Work of the Belgian Masters (Louis Dubois, 4 paintings); at the 1922 Brussels Artistic and Literary Circle (5 panels), at the 1923 Belgian Art Show, in Paris, at the 1926 Belgian Art Show, in Bern, at the 1927 Belgian Art Show, in London, in 1930, at the Centennial Art Expo of Belgian Art, in Brussels, at the Third Salon (Show) at Namur, in 1931, at the Belgian Art Show in Copenhagen, at the Belgian Art Show at Expo of the Century, and at the Expo of Women's Portraits in Brussels, in 1932, at the Brussels Fine Arts Palace, Retrospective of the Masters of La Societe Libre des Beaux-Arts, Artan, Dubois, De Grouz, Verwee, Meunier, Rops, Baron, Smits (Dubois 61 paintings); at the 1935 Brussels Universal and International Expo, "Five Centuries of Art" (Dubois 3 paintings).

The Brussels Museum has 15 of his works on display, Ixelles Fine Arts Museum displays 5 of his paintings, Charlier-Van Custen Museum, in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode displays 3 of his paintings, Gand Fine Arts Museum displays 3 of his works, Tournai Fine Arts Museum displays 3 of his paintings, Ostende Fine Arts Museum displayed 3 of his paintings that were destroyed during World War II,

The vast majority of the information above is taken from a National Biography published by the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letter and Fine Arts of Belgium, Excerpt from the 42nd Volume, prepared by the firm of Emile Bruylant, Legal and Scientific Publications Corporation, 67 La Regence Street, 1964.

References

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