Adolphe Pierre Sunaert, Adolphe Sunaert or Adolf Sunaert (

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

, 27 November 1825 – Ghent, 17 April 1876) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

painter, printmaker, teacher and author.Adolphe Pierre Sunaert
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

He played a role in the organization and conservation of the art collections of the city of Ghent.Paul Bergmans, 'Adolphe Pierre Sunaert'
at the

Biographie Nationale de Belgique The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' ( French; "National Biography of Belgium") is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ' ...

, Volume 24, p. 266-269

Life

Adolphe Pierre Sunaert was born in Ghent where he trained as a civil engineer at the local School of Civil Engineering and obtained a diploma of teacher of the middle school. At the creation of a special school of industrial design and weaving by the Ghent city council in 1852, Sunaert was appointed to teach the second part of the course. He was sent to Paris and Lyon in France to learn the specialist technical knowledge. When the school was merged with the Industrial School in 1857, Sunaert became professor of the spinning course. Adolphe Pierre Sunaert - Young woman on a market carrying a straw basket and a bag

Adolphe Pierre Sunaert - Young woman on a market carrying a straw basket and a bag

On 8 August 1857 Sunaert was appointed professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent. He taught algebra, geometry, stone cutting and perspective. He drafted two course books in the

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-Europea ...

, one on perspective entitled ''Doorzichtigheid of perspectief'' (1855) and one on geometry entitled ''Meetkundige bepalingen en begrippen met toepassingen bestemd voor de leerlingen der klas van lijntekening'' (1871). He also wrote in collaboration with L. Debaudt a bilingual French-Dutch manual on designs for doors and windowns entitled '' Recueil de 24 planches de modèles de portes et fenêtres'' (1875). One of Sunaert's students was the painter

Gustave den Duyts Gustave Den Duyts or Gustaaf Den Duyts (22 October 1850 - 13 February 1897) was a Belgian painter, watercolourist, pastelist, etcher and graphic artist, known for his landscapes, cityscapes, marines and still lifes.local museum of fine arts, which was published in French as ''Catalogue descriptif du Musée de la ville de Gand''. A year later, Sunaert, who was a supporter of the cause of the Flemish (Dutch) language in Belgium, published a Dutch-language version of the catalogue the next year. His catalogue provided a detailed description of the works in the museum collection with very careful attributions of the works and received abundant praise. The city council of Ghent was of the opinion that the

local museum A local museum or local history museum is a type of museum that shows the historical development of a place/region (local history) using exhibits. These museums usually maintain a collection of historic three-dimensional objects which are exh ...

did not receive a sufficient number of visitors. It entrusted Sunaert in 1871 with the task of designing a reorganization of the museum. In his report Sunaert advised that the works of the Flemish artists

Gaspar de Crayer Gaspar de Crayer or Jasper de CrayerName variations: Caspar de Crayer and Gaspard de Crayer (18 November 1584 – 27 January 1669) was a Flemish painter known for his many Counter-Reformation altarpieces and portraits. He was a court paint ...

and Nicolas de Liemaker be given prominence and that all the works in the collection be presented chronologically. Sunaert's proposals would require some adjustments to the museum building and was rejected by the city council.Liesbet Nys, 'De intrede van het publiek: museumbezoek in België', 1830-1914 Universitaire Pers Leuven, 2009, p. 223, 239 The Ghent city council also gave Sunaert the task to write a report on the state of all the holdings in the city's art collection located in the civil buildings and churches in the city. His report was issued in 1672 and commenced a tradition of annual inspections of the city's collections. Sunaert was able to recover some objects for the city council and was entrusted to restore others. From 1675 he was a member of the city's local commission of monuments. Sunaert was active in the 'Liberale Associatie' ('Liberal Association'), the political organization of the liberal party in Ghent. He was co-founder in 1846 of the 'Vlaamsch Gezelschap' ('Flemish Society'), an organization pursuing the emancipation of the Flemish people in Belgium and the recognition of Flemish (Dutch) on an equal footing with the French language in the country. He later joined the

Willemsfonds The Willemsfonds, named after Jan Frans Willems, is a non-profit cultural organisation founded in the 19th century to promote Flemish culture and language in Belgium. In order to achieve this goal, the organisation encouraged Flemish folk song, or ...

, a cultural organization promoting the Dutch language and Flemish culture. In 1864 Sunaert provided financial support to

Julius Vuylsteke Julius Vuylsteke (Ghent, 10 November 1836 – Ghent, 16 January 1903) was a Belgian liberal politician and writer. He started his career as a lawyer, but later opened a bookshop. As a liberal Flemish politician, he founded the liberal association ...

in the attempt to establish the Dutch-language 'Liberaal-Nederlandsch Weekblad' ('Liberal-Dutch Weekly') and in 1867 he was involved in the re-establishment of the Flemish Liberale Associatie. Five years later Sunaert was a member, along with

Hippolyte Metdepenningen Hippolyte Désiré Metdepenningen (1799–1881) was a Belgian lawyer, president of the Ghent Bar Association and a politician. After Belgium became independent from the Netherlands in 1830 he became a municipal councilor on the Orangist list. ...

and Auguste de Maere, of the Ghent Committee that sought to celebrate the 1572 capture by the Dutch of

Brielle Brielle (), also called Den Briel in Dutch and Brill in English, is a town, municipality and historic seaport in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, on the north side of the island of Voorne-Putten, at the mouth of the New ...

during the

Dutch Revolt The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) (Historiography of the Eighty Years' War#Name and periodisation, c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and t ...

.Adolphe Sunaert, 1825-1876
in: Bart D'hondt, 'Van Andriesschool tot Zondernaamstraat, Gids door 150 jaar liberaal leven te Gent. Een uitgave van Snoeck en Liberaal Archief', 2014 Sunaert was an avid art collector, in particular of prints. He left his large collection of prints to the library of Ghent, where it formed the basis of the library's print cabinet.

Artistic career

Adolphe Pierre Sunaert - Two men with hats in Dutch seventeenth century costume

Sunaert started his artistic career during his student years when he drew caricatures for satiric Dutch-language journals ''De Lanteern'' and ''De Mascarade''. He also created illustrations for a short story of by baron Jules de Saint Genois entitled ''De grootboekhouder: eene Gentsche vertelling'' ('The great accountant: a story from Ghent') (1851). He was a member of the 'Kunstverbond' ('Art Association'), which was formed by painters and sculptors in Ghent. Sunaert only started to paint in his forties. The majority of his paintings are historic and mythological scenes influenced by Rubens.'Adolphe Sunaert' in: 'De Coupure in Gent. Scheiding en verbinding', Academia Press, 2009, p. 198 He also made some portraits. He was active as an etcher and created some engravings of portraits and genre scenes.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunaert, Adolphe Pierre Belgian genre painters Belgian portrait painters Belgian printmakers Artists from Ghent Conservator-restorers 19th-century Belgian painters Belgian male painters 19th-century Belgian male artists 1825 births 1876 deaths