Antoine Wiertz à la conquête de Paris

Abstract

Antoine Wiertz comes to conquer Pans. The enthusiasm of Belgian painters for the French capital began at the end of the eighteenth century, at the time of neo-classicism. Under the domination of the Dutch, and despite a pro-Dutch and pro-Germanic current, many Belgian painters turned to Paris as a city in which they could find ideas in keeping with their aspirations for liberty. Antoine Wiertz stayed in Paris on several occasions, and this article examines what was at stake in these visits. As a Prix de Rome, in 1832, Wiertz was authorised to follow the courses of the young French painters who were prize-winners at the Villa Médicis, then under the direction of Ingres. At Rome, between 1834 and 1837, Wiertz painted his first version of The Greeks and the Trojans disputing the body of Patrocles (Museum of Liege). The author compares the preliminary studies and the first and second versions of this large composition (the second, dating from 1844-1845, is at the Wiertz Museum in Brussels). The first Patrocles had a favourable reception in Belgium, but the painter could not exhibit it at the Paris Salon of 1838. The work presented at the 1839 Salon was not well received by the French critics, even if it was praised again at the Brussels Salon of the same year. Wiertz developed a deep dislike of Paris, a far cry from his early enthusiasm, and went on to proclaim the equality of Belgian painting with French painting.