Matthias de Visch or Matthijs de Visch (22 March 1701 in

Reninge Reninge is a town in north-west Belgium in the province of West Flanders with approximately 1,000 inhabitants. Since the reforms of 1977, it is located in the municipality of Lo-Reninge and is part of the Arrondissement of Diksmuide. Its postcode ...

– 23 April 1765 in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

) was a Flemish painter of

history painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...

s and

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

s.Matthias de Visch
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 ...

Life

He was a pupil of Joseph van den Kerckhove in Bruges. To continue his artistic training, he travelled to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, returning in 1732. He gave art lessons at his home from 1735 and played a key role in the reopening of the Bruges Academy of Art in 1739. He acted as its director from then until his death. Jean Garemyn
in: Michael Bryan, Dictionary of painters and engravers, biographical and critical (Google eBook), 1849 The Academy played a pioneering role in promoting neoclassicism in the Southern Netherlands.Virginie D'haene, ''Bruges Artists Abroad: Neoclassicist Drawings in the Printroom of the Groeningemuseum''
in: Codart eZine Summer 2014 In 1737 he married Petronilla Iweins.Dominiek Dendooven & Joël Snick, ''Matthijs De Visch, (met proeve van volledige inventaris van de schilderwerken door Matthijs de Visch)'', Davidsfonds Reninge, 2001. His pupils included Jean Garemyn, Paul de Cock, Pieter (I) Pepers, Jacques de Rijcke, and

Joseph-Benoît Suvée Joseph-Benoît Suvée (3 January 1743 – 9 February 1807) was a Flemish painter strongly influenced by French neo-classicism. Biography Suvée was born in Bruges. Initially a pupil of Matthias de Visch, he came to France aged 19 and bec ...

Work

De Visch painted diverse subjects, but is primarily known for his religious scenes and portraits. His style has a late-

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

character, but can be regarded a transitional to the

rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

in particular in his use of soft tones.

References

External links

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The Bruges academy in the 18th century
1702 births 1765 deaths Belgian neoclassical painters Artists from Bruges 18th-century Flemish painters {{Flemish-painter-stub