Portrait of a man with a child (1822)

Inscription on the back of the chair on the left: “P. van Hanselaere De Gand F. Napoli 1822”

Provenance: Rome, private collection

Even now, the richest source for information on Pieter van Hanselaere is the obituary written by the architect Pierre-Jacques Goetghebuer which appeared in the «Messager des Sciences Historiques, ou Archives des Arts et de la Bibliographie de Belgique» in 1862. It cites that the painter was born in Ghent on 31 July 1786, that he studied there at the Royal Academy with van Huffel, that he won a first prize and that in 1809 he went to Paris where became one of David’s pupils. Although he had already distinguished himself in the art of portraiture, in 1814 he won a first prize for the history class with the Sacrificio di Abele, which allowed him to visit Italy. However, he was only able to go there in 1816, after the fall of the Empire, settling in Rome where he was appointed member of the Accademia di San Luca thanks to Canova.

In 1822, he moved to Naples, where in March he was appointed honorary professor at the beginning of Niccolini’s directorship, as shown in the Statute of the Royal Institute of Fine Arts; in the Bourbon capital, he went on to become the representative of the revival of «Flemishism, a trend that never passed» (Lorenzetti 1952, p. 220). Following Berger’s death on 4 July 1822, he took part in the selection process to replace him as professor of painting, together with Italian artists (Paolo Falciano, Filippo Marsigli, Paolo De Albertis, Andrea Celestino, Giorgio Berti, Giuseppe Cammarano) and another foreigner, Joseph Franque, who was chosen as the successful candidate on 14 August 1823. Van Hanselaere mainly exhibited portraits, including one of the Princess of Scilla (Maria Felice Alliata?), defined as «un vrai chef-d’oeuvre», and one of a standing Duke of Ascoli, Troiano Marulli, who died on 19 May 1823, judged to have a monotonous red background and lacking atmosphere. Then, he presented three historical compositions, including Susanna al bagno. As already mentioned in «Messager des Sciences et des Arts» (March-April 1824, therefore when the painter was still in Naples), participation in the selection process in which Neapolitan, Sicilian, Tuscan and French artists took part earned him the title as honorary painter to the king of Naples, chosen following the creation of a large painting for the new church in the city, recognised as being the Basilica of San Francesco di Paola. He remained in Naples until 1829, after which he returned to Ghent, where he was appointed with full honours professor of the Royal Academy of Painting. This is where he died on 10 March 1862.

Still to be fully explored is the portrait work that van Hanselaere carried out in Naples and which could rightly constitute an invaluable iconographic and physiognomy gallery of a large section of the Neapolitan clients during those years. In fact, Goethghebuer recalled other portraits produced in Naples by the artist, starting from those of the new sovereigns Francesco I and Maria Isabella in 1826, the Chevalier d’Acton on horseback, Sir William A’Court, the Duke of Ascoli, the Marquis of Ruffo, the Prince of Cassaro and Count Tempère. There was also the portrait of Giacinto Gigante’s father, Gaetano. In wanting to avoid the military conscription of his eighteen-year-old son, the latter tried to have him given award at the Institute since doing so would have led to exemption from military service. After his success in the competition on the theme of “a rural house with bushes and thickets”, his teacher Anton Pitloo introduced him to his compatriot van Hanselaere, who was interested in buying the winning painting. Giacinto gave it to him as a gift and the painter therefore felt obliged to paint a portrait of his father Gaetano («Napoli nobilissima», III, 1922, p. 88).

However, an honourable mention in the artist’s Neapolitan portrait work is undoubtedly deserved by this intense double portrait signed and dated 1822, in the very same year as the competition and, therefore, one of the very first works created in Naples, just a few months following the beautiful Roman portrait of Niccolò Paganini. Sitting on an elegant empire-style armchair with sphinx-shaped armrests, the man observing the onlooker wears a fashionable dark coat, at the top of which juts out a high white collar; also fashionable at the time was the hairstyle worn forward to attenuate the high forehead. The intense eyes and the tight mouth reveal a proud, yet at the same time melancholic soul. In fact, he appears almost consoled by the presence of the child who is next to him and who wraps his right arm around his back, as shown by the little hand with the amazing rendering of its small nails reflecting the light. The same eyes as his father, but infinitely more vivid and full of curiosity, this refined child has a lively little face worthy of a Correggio and a suit with a tailcoat, waistcoat and broad white collar. His left hand holds a book open for the onlooker, who can easily peek inside and read the name Plutarch. More specifically, Plutarque.

This very detail could constitute a significant element, if not for the identification of the characters, then at least for placing them in a specific setting. Reading the Parallel Lives or Moralia by the Greek writer, who lived in the period straddling the 1st and 2nd centuries BC, constituted a fundamental phase in the education of a young man at the time and, in particular, one of French culture. So much so that, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, ad hoc versions were published for children and teenagers, such as Le Plutarque de la jeunesse, ou Abrégé des vies des plus grands hommes de toutes les nations (1804) and Le Plutarque de l’enfance, ou Maximes et traits historiques, extraits des vies des hommes illustres (1812). The young man depicted – caught reflecting on the examples of the past, on the heroic and virtuous lives of the great figures in classical history, such as Julius Caesar, whose name can be vaguely made out on the right page of the book – is, therefore, one of the privileged readers of that time, endeavouring to demonstrate his education to the onlooker, ready to become a citizen of principles and a solid culture, under the satisfied gaze of his father. It is therefore probable that the identity of the two characters portrayed can be found in the group of French people in Naples during those years. Particularly evocative is the hypothesis that the man depicted might be an artist, a colleague of van Hanselaere, perhaps that very same Joseph Franque who, in 1822, took part with him in the selection process for the succession to Berger and who was forty-eight at the time, which would more or less seem to be the age of the man portrayed.

Whoever he is, the message that this image wishes to convey is clear: not just the memory of an affectionate relationship between a father and a son, but evidently the transmission of values and culture from one generation to another. Whoever he is, the splendid formal values of the work are nevertheless visible, a work in which highlights the qualities and skills of the painter, his Flemish and Davidian culture, the ability to faithfully recreate the texture of fabrics, cloths and wooden objects. Here, more than anywhere elsewhere, there is a perception of the feelings of the characters with an expressive force not equally apparent in other works by the painter, except undoubtedly in the beautiful self-portrait at the Rijksmuseum painted two years later, again in Naples, and signed with a laconic ‘par moi’.

Giulio Brevetti

Bibliography

1804. Blanchard, Le Plutarque de la jeunesse, ou Abrégé des vies des plus grands hommes de toutes les nations, Paris, Le Prieur, 1804.

J.-F.-A. Buynand, Le Plutarque de l’enfance, ou Maximes et traits historiques, extraits des vies des hommes illustres, Lyon, Vve Buynand, 1812.

Sur M. Van Hanselaere, Peintre de Gand, actuellement à Naples, in «Messager des Sciences et des Arts», March-April 1824, pp. 417-422.

P.-J. Goetghebuer, Pierre Van Hanselaere, in «Messager des Sciences Historiques, ou Archives des Arts et de la Bibliographie de Belgique», 1862, pp. 118-120.

Da libri e periodici, in «Napoli nobilissima», III, 1922, p. 88.

220. Lorenzetti, L’Accademia di belle arti di Napoli. Due secoli di vita artistica nell’Italia meridionale, Florence, Le Monnier, 1952, p. 220.
221. Pisani, Pieter van Hanselaere, in Civiltà dell’Ottocento. Le arti figurative, Naples, Electa Napoli, 1997, p. 621.