On The Scheldt - Afternoon
Artist
Paul Jean Clays
(Bruges, Belgium, 1819 - 1900)
Date1868
Mediumoil on panel
ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings
DimensionsOverall: Height: 41.5 cm, Width: 63.1 cm
Frame: Height: 72 cm, Width: 92.5 cm
Frame: Height: 72 cm, Width: 92.5 cm
AcquisitionPresented in 1891 by Francis Edmond.
CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDAG002715
About MeThis painting was commissioned by the Aberdonian art collector John Forbes White shortly after he visited Clays in the autumn of 1867. One of Belgium’s most important marine painters, Clays was born in Bruges but brought up in Westcapelle, which is located on the North Sea. Clays always had a love for the sea and whilst at school in Boulogne he signed on as a ship-boy and spent a number of years at sea.
During this period he began to display an interest in painting and decided to travel to Paris – entering the studios of Horace Vernet and Baron J.A.T. Gudin during the 1840s. He developed his own modern style, in which light and atmosphere were paramount and his work was subsequently influential in the development of both the Realist and Impressionist movements.
Clays exhibited a number of works at the Exposition Universelle of 1867 and it may have been there that White first spotted his work as he visited this vast exhibition in Paris in May of that year.
More About Me
Belgian Clays was one of the most esteemed painters of maritime themes of his time.
David T. Muirhead
