Project

Reasoned online catalogue of the oeuvre of the Ghent painter Albert Baertsoen (1866-1922)

Code
BOF/MVF/202103/036
Duration
01 May 2021 → 30 April 2023
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Humanities
    • Heritage and cultural conservation
    • Modern and contemporary history
    • Painting and drawing
    • Printmaking
Keywords
symbolism Ghent Baertsoen
 
Project description

Around 1900, Albert Baertsoen belonged to the top of the Belgian art world. His many city and village landscapes cannot easily be categorised, but his oeuvre is partly related to symbolism. Baertsoen also enjoyed great international renown, as shown, for example, by his painting Dégel à Gand in the Musée d'Orsay.

After the Second World War, he fell somewhat into oblivion. His work and its importance for (Belgian) art history is therefore insufficiently known.

As part of the research project Redefining picturesque and symbolist qualities, and as a spin-off from this project, an oeuvre catalogue was compiled through intensive research in private collections and exhibition and auction catalogues. We are now ready to go public with this information and with an extensive package of visual material. This will be done preferably through the creation of a comprehensive website, where the general public, museums, auction houses, gallery owners and, of course, the academic world, can get to know Baertsoen, his work and his time better.