Hubert Vos (February 15, 1855 – January 8, 1935) was a Dutch painter who was born Josephus Hubertus Vos in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

. He studied at the

Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels (french: Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts - École supérieure des Arts de la Ville de Bruxelles (ARBA-ESA), nl, Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Brussel), is an art school established in Br ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and with

Fernand Cormon Fernand Cormon (24 December 1845 – 20 March 1924) was a French painter born in Paris. He became a pupil of Alexandre Cabanel, Eugène Fromentin, and Jean-François Portaels, and one of the leading historical painters of modern France. Biograph ...

in Paris. He exhibited widely in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dresden and Munich. From 1885 to 1892, he worked in England, where he exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

between 1888 and 1891. He was a member of the

Royal Society of British Artists The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy. History The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fif ...

Career

His second wife was Eleanor Kaikilani Coney, of Hawaiian, Chinese, and American descent. In 1898, he visited

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, where he painted the local people. In that same year, Vos traveled to

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

, where he completed at least three paintings in duplicate. In each case, he left one copy in Korea and kept one copy. The paintings are a life-sized portrait of

Emperor Gojong Gojong (; 8 September 1852 – 21 January 1919) was the monarch of Korea from 1864 to 1907. He reigned as the last King of Joseon from 1864 to 1897, and as the first Emperor of Korea from 1897 until his forced abdication in 1907. He is known ...

, a portrait of

Min Sangho Min or MIN may refer to: Places * Fujian, also called Mǐn, a province of China ** Min Kingdom (909–945), a state in Fujian * Min County, a county of Dingxi, Gansu province, China * Min River (Fujian) * Min River (Sichuan) * Mineola (Amtrak ...

(1870–1933), and a landscape of

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. The copies left in Korea hung in the

Deoksugung Palace Deoksugung, also known as Gyeongun-gung, Deoksugung Palace, or Deoksu Palace, is a walled compound of palaces in Seoul that was inhabited by members of Korea's Royal Family during the Joseon monarchy until the annexation of Korea by Japan ...

until all except the landscape of

, were destroyed by fire in 1904. Vos visited China in 1899 and painted portraits of prominent leaders.

Empress Dowager Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; mnc, Tsysi taiheo; formerly Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu people, Manchu Nara (clan)#Yehe Nara, Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese nob ...

(Tzu Hsi), whose portrait had been painted in oil by the American artist

Katharine Carl Katharine Augusta Carl (February 12, 1865 – December 7, 1938) (sometimes spelled ''Katherine Carl'') was an American portrait painter and author. She made paintings of notable and royal people in the United States, Europe and Asia. She spen ...

, saw these portraits and invited Vos to visit China in 1905. He did one portrait of her which is still displayed in the

Summer Palace The Summer Palace () is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in the Qing dynasty. Inside includes Longevity Hill () Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of , three-quarter ...

, then after he got back to New York, finished another portrait which he had started in China. This was displayed at the Paris Salon, then acquired by Grenville L. Winthrop and given to the

Fogg Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

at Harvard. In addition to portraits and landscapes, Vos is known for his interior scenes and still-life paintings of

Chinese porcelain Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics range from construc ...

s. The gifts from

are favorite objects of the still-life paintings. He died in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1935. The

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

(Paris, France), Bonnefanten Museum (Maastricht, Netherlands), the

Chicago History Museum Chicago History Museum is the museum of the Chicago Historical Society (CHS). The CHS was founded in 1856 to study and interpret Chicago's history. The museum has been located in Lincoln Park since the 1930s at 1601 North Clark Street at the in ...

, the

Fogg Art Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

(

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

), the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...

, the

Luxembourg Palace The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the ...

(Paris), the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, Capital Museum (Beijing), and the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

are among the public collections holding works by Hubert Vos.Smithsonian American Art Museum, Art Inventories Catalog
/ref> Vos was elected to

The Lambs The Lambs, Inc. (also known as The Lambs Club) is a social club in New York City for actors, songwriters, and others involved in the theatre. It is America's oldest theatrical organization. "The Lambs" is a registered trademark of The Lambs, Inc ...

theatrical club in 1895. Three of his portraits are displayed in the club collection in Manhattan.

Selected works

File:Hubert Vos - 'Iokepa, Hawaiian Fisher Boy'.jpg, ''Iokepa, Hawaiian Fisher Boy'', 1898 Image:Hubert Vos's painting 'The Knitting Room.jpg, ''The Knitting Room'' Image:Hubert Vos's painting 'Pink and Green Vase'.jpg, ''Pink and Green Vase'' File:Hubert Vos, Kaikilani, 1900.jpg, ''Kaikilani'', 1900 File:Hubert Vos, Kaikilani bust, undated.jpg, ''Kaikilani'', undated File:Hubert Vos (1855-1935) - Hawaiian Troubadour, 1898.jpg, ''Hawaiian Troubadour'', oil on canvas painting by Hubert Vos, 1898,

File:Hubert Vos - 'Study of Hawaiian Fish', oil on canvas. 1898, Honolulu Academy of Arts.jpg, ''Study of Hawaiian Fish'', 1898,

File:Empress-Dowager-Cixi1.jpg,

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

Cixi Imperial Dowager Empress of China, painting by Hubert Vos, 1905

References

* Virginia Anderson,
'A Semi-Chinese Picture': Hubert Vos and the Empress Dowager of China
" ''Proceedings and Other Publications'' (2012). * Ellis, George R. and Marcia Morse, ''A Hawaii Treasury, Masterpieces from the Honolulu Academy of Arts'', Tokyo, Asahi Shimbun, 2000, 150, 223-4. * Forbes, David W., "Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941", Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, 220-223. * Luke SK Kwong, "No Shadows," ''History Today'' 50 (2000): 42-43. * Severson, Don R. ''Finding Paradise: Island Art in Private Collections'', University of Hawaii Press, 2002, p. 104-5. * Wood, Christopher, ''Victorian Painters'', 3rd ed., revised, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1995.

External links

Painting an Empress; Hubert Vos, K.C.D.D., the First Man to Portray the Dowager Empress of China
The New York Times, December 17, 1905, Sunday]
Hubert Vos in AskArt.com

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Art Inventories Catalog

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vos, Hubert 1855 births 1935 deaths Dutch portrait painters Dutch landscape painters Dutch still life painters Artists from Maastricht Academic art 19th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters 20th-century Dutch painters 19th-century Dutch male artists 20th-century Dutch male artists