Gustaaf Wappers

Gustaaf Wappers studied at Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Training under Mattheus Ignatius van Bree and Willem Jacob Herreyns is recorded. Jules Breton, Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic and August Weckesser are recorded as having studied under Gustaaf Wappers. The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is architecture and painting. Places of work recorded in the authority are Paris and Antwerp. Employment is recorded with Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Positions recorded include court painter. Works named in the authority record are Anthony van Dyck in Love with his Model. Work by Gustaaf Wappers is recorded in the collections of Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Museum of Fine Arts Ghent (MSK), Amsterdam Museum and Centraal Museum. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Legion of Honour, Commander of the Order of Leopold, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Saxe-Ernestine and Commander of the Order of Christ.

• Name — Gustave Wappers • Born — 23 August 1803 • Birthplace — Antwerp, France (now Belgium) • Died — 16 December 1874 • Place of death — Paris, France • Known for — Painting • Training — Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp • Movement — Romanticism

• Illustration — Episode of the Belgian Revolution of 1830, 1835. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, and during 1826 in Paris. The Romantic movement with its new ideas about art and politics was astir in France. Wappers was the first Belgian artist to take advantage of this state of affairs, and his first exhibited painting, "The Devotion of the Burgomaster of Leiden," appeared at the appropriate moment and had great success in the Brussels Salon in 1830, the year of the Belgian Revolution. While political, this remarkable work revolutionized the direction of Flemish painters. Wappers was invited to the court at Brussels, and was favoured with commissions. In 1832 the city of Antwerp appointed him Professor of Painting. He exhibited his masterpiece, "Episode of the Belgian Revolution of 1830" or rather "Episode of the September Days of 1830 on the Grand Place of Brussels", (Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels) at the Antwerp Salon in 1834. He was subsequently appointed painter to Leopold, King of the Belgians. At the death of Matthieu-Ignace Van Brée in 1839 he was elevated to director of the Antwerp Academy. As a teacher at the Antwerp Academy he trained a great number of pupils including Ford Madox Brown, Jozef Van Lerius, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, William Duffield, Emil Hünten, the Czech history painter Karel Javůrek, Jaroslav Čermák, Ludwig von Hagn, Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans, Eugene van Maldeghem, Ferdinand Pauwels and Jacob Jacobs. His works are numerous. Some of them depict traditional devotional subjects ("Christ Entombed"), while others illustrate the Romantic view of history: "Charles I taking leave of his Children", "Charles IX", "Camoens", "Peter the Great at Saardam", and "Boccaccio at the Court of Joanna of Naples". Louis Philippe gave him a commission to paint a large painting for the gallery at Versailles, "The Defence of Rhodes by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem". He finished the work in 1844, the same year that he received the title of baron from Belgian king Leopold I. After retiring as director of the Antwerp Academy, he settled in 1853 in Paris, where he died in 1873.

• Illustration — Anthony van Dyck wooing his Model, 1827 • Illustration — Christopher Columbus in Chains, 1846 • Illustration — The Dauphin in the Temple Prison, 1850 • Illustration — Giovanni Boccaccio reads The Decameron to Joanna of Naples, 1868 • Illustration — Marie-Louise, Queen of the Belgians, 1855 • Illustration — Young artist in reverie, 1857 • Illustration — Luís de Camões and his guide, 1855 • Illustration — The Shulammite, 1870

Gustaaf Wappers was recorded at birth as Egidius Karel Gustaaf, baron Wappers. The authorities additionally record the headings Gustaaf Wappers, Gustave Wappers, Baron Egidius Karel Gustave Wappers, Baron Gustaf Wappers and Egidius Karel Gustaf, Baron Wappers. His recorded language was French. Other recorded relations include Alexandre Bordes and Gérard Bordes.

Gustaaf Wappers worked in architecture and painting. His work is associated with Romanticism. He was employed by Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Recorded position is court painter. He belonged to Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and Académie des beaux-arts. He worked at Paris and Antwerp.

Gustaaf Wappers is recorded as having received Officer of the Legion of Honour, Commander of the Order of Leopold and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Saxe-Ernestine.