DOI issue:
No. 66 (September, 1898)
DOI article:Mourey, Gabriel: A painter of dead cities: M. Albert Baertsoen
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21969#0268
Albert Baertsoen
“VIEILLES MAISONS, NUAGE BLANC
FROM A PAINTING BY ALBERT BAERTSOEN
control, taking its proper place with nobility and
dignity.
M. Albert Baertsoen’s canvases are not designed
to captivate the attention of the holiday public,
for they are lacking in all the essentials required
to attract the crowd. But I do not suppose
he is likely to deplore this fact. He has won
the enthusiastic admiration of his fellow-artists,
and of all those who are capable of delicate
appreciation, and despise the loud, artificial
methods adopted by too many artists nowadays.
This is proved by the hearty welcome he has re-
ceived wherever his works have been displayed,
whether at the Champ de Mars, at the Libre
Esthetique, at the annual International Exhibition
in Paris, at the “ Secession ” of Munich—of which
he is one of the founders—at Venice last year, at
Budapest at the present moment, at Dresden,
where his Soir a lAsile won a gold medal in
234
1897, or at Munich, where a similar honour was
conferred upon him in 1890. The Luxembourg
Gallery has been adorned since 1895 with one of
his pictures— Vieux Canalflamand, which occupies
a foremost place in the Salle des Ecoles Etran-
geres; while the museum of his native town,
Ghent, contains his Cordiers sur les Remparts, to
which I referred just now.
I must not close these notes without a passing
mention of M. Baertsoen’s skill as an aquafortist.
Long ago he was drawn towards this powerful
process, and has engraved more than a hundred
plates, some of remarkable merit. He brings to
bear on the eau forte the independence and the
freedom of touch which distinguish his paintings.
His etchings are true painters’ etchings, bold,
vigorous, and full of colour. Especially worthy of
mention are those entitled La Route Zelandaise;
Le Vieux port, Veere ; Vieux quai, Flandre ; Vieux
“VIEILLES MAISONS, NUAGE BLANC
FROM A PAINTING BY ALBERT BAERTSOEN
control, taking its proper place with nobility and
dignity.
M. Albert Baertsoen’s canvases are not designed
to captivate the attention of the holiday public,
for they are lacking in all the essentials required
to attract the crowd. But I do not suppose
he is likely to deplore this fact. He has won
the enthusiastic admiration of his fellow-artists,
and of all those who are capable of delicate
appreciation, and despise the loud, artificial
methods adopted by too many artists nowadays.
This is proved by the hearty welcome he has re-
ceived wherever his works have been displayed,
whether at the Champ de Mars, at the Libre
Esthetique, at the annual International Exhibition
in Paris, at the “ Secession ” of Munich—of which
he is one of the founders—at Venice last year, at
Budapest at the present moment, at Dresden,
where his Soir a lAsile won a gold medal in
234
1897, or at Munich, where a similar honour was
conferred upon him in 1890. The Luxembourg
Gallery has been adorned since 1895 with one of
his pictures— Vieux Canalflamand, which occupies
a foremost place in the Salle des Ecoles Etran-
geres; while the museum of his native town,
Ghent, contains his Cordiers sur les Remparts, to
which I referred just now.
I must not close these notes without a passing
mention of M. Baertsoen’s skill as an aquafortist.
Long ago he was drawn towards this powerful
process, and has engraved more than a hundred
plates, some of remarkable merit. He brings to
bear on the eau forte the independence and the
freedom of touch which distinguish his paintings.
His etchings are true painters’ etchings, bold,
vigorous, and full of colour. Especially worthy of
mention are those entitled La Route Zelandaise;
Le Vieux port, Veere ; Vieux quai, Flandre ; Vieux