THE COCKATOO

Oil on panel: 77.3 x 58.5 cm / 33.4 x 23 in
Signed lower right

Painter of genre scenes and portraits.

Gustave Léonard De Jonghe was born in Kortrijk as the son of the prominent landscape painter Jean-Baptiste De Jonghe. He received his first art lessons from his father. When De Jonghe’s father died when he was only 15 years old, his native city granted him a scholarship and he continued his studies in Brussels at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts under François-Joseph Navez and Louis Gallait.

From 1848 onwards De Jonghe participated in the exhibitions of the Brussels Salon. Following the example of Alfred Stevens, he emigrated to Paris and he soon made name as a popular painter of elegant woman and group portraits of the bourgeoisie. He became an exquisite painter of elegant women and family life in the Second Empire.

From 1850 on he began to exhibit at the Parisian Salons. In 1864, the Belgian King Leopold the First honoured him with the Order of Leopold. He travelled incessantly for almost thirty years between Paris and Brussels and finally settled down in Antwerp in 1884. There he died in 1893, at the age of 63.

De Jonghe distinguished himself by his virtuoso talent and his reputation from 1863 onwards was undisputed.

Period:
Courtrai 1829 - Antwerp 1893
Belgian School

Exhibitions:
Antwerp - Brussels - Courtrai - Ghent - Ixelles - New York

Literature:
P.& V. Berko, "Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875", Knokke 1981, p. 177.
P. & V. Berko, "19th Century European Virtuoso Painters", Knokke 2011, p. 428.