GUSTAAF WAPPERS (ATTRIBUTED) Flemish / Belgian, 1803–1874 Portrait of a Gentleman in a Wide-Brimmed Hat Ink Sketch Portrait sketch attributed to Gustaaf Wappers depicting a bearded gentleman wearing a large, dramatically plumed and ribboned wide-brimmed hat, drawn on toned paper in soft, atmospheric graphite. The sitter is shown in a loose, unfinished manner typical of a preparatory study, with confident lines defining his features, mustache, and beard, while the costume and shoulders trail off into lighter, sketchier strokes. The reverse bears a reference card documenting signature examples of Gustaaf Wappers for comparison and authentication purposes. Framed. Not examined out of frame. Sight (as matted): 5.75 x 5 inches; frame: 11 x 9.75 inches $150-250
ARTIST PROFILE: Egide Charles Gustave, Baron Wappers (Belgian, 1803–1874): Born in Antwerp on 23 August 1803, Wappers studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and continued his training in Paris in 1826, at the height of the Romantic movement then stirring French art and politics. He became the first Belgian artist to embrace this new Romantic sensibility, and his painting "The Devotion of the Burgomaster of Leiden" achieved great success at the Brussels Salon of 1830, the very year of the Belgian Revolution, effectively transforming the direction of Flemish painting. The city of Antwerp appointed him Professor of Painting in 1832, and King Leopold of the Belgians named him titular court painter, while Wappers went on to serve as director of the Antwerp Academy from 1839 until 1853. His numerous works spanned devotional subjects and grand Romantic history paintings, including "Charles I taking leave of his Children" and "Peter the Great at Saardam," and King Louis Philippe of France commissioned him to paint "The Defence of Rhodes by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem" for Versailles, completed in 1844, the same year he was made a baron by Leopold I. As a teacher, he trained a notable roster of pupils including Ford Madox Brown, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and Jozef Van Lerius. He retired to Paris in 1853, where he died on 6 December 1874.
