Anna Rosalie Boch was a
BelgianBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, born in
Saint-VaastLa Louvière is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. La Louvière's municipality includes the old communes of Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pierre, Saint-Vaast, Trivières, Boussoit, Houdeng-Aimeries, Houdeng-Gœgnies, Maurage, and Strépy-Bracquegnies...
, Hainaut. Anna Boch died in Ixelles in 1936 and is interred there in the Ixelles Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium.
Artistic style
Boch participated in the
Neo-ImpressionistNeo-impressionism was coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat. Seurat’s greatest masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, marked the beginning of this movement when it first made its appearance at an exhibition...
movement. Her early works used a
PointillistPointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works...
technique, but she is best known for her
ImpressionistImpressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
style which she adopted for most of her career. A pupil of
Isidore VerheydenIsidore Verheyden was a Belgian painter of landscapes, portraits and still life. He was a member of Les XX from 1884 to 1886...
, she was influenced by
Théo van RysselbergheThéo van Rysselberghe was a Belgian neo-impressionist painter, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the century.-Early years:...
whom she met in the
Groupe des XXLes XX was a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, formed in 1883 by the Brussels lawyer, publisher, and entrepreneur Octave Maus. For ten years 'Les Vingt' , as they called themselves, held an annual exhibition of their art; each year twenty international artists were also...
.
Collection
Besides her own paintings, Boch held one of the most important collections of impressionist paintings of its time. She promoted many young artists including
Vincent van GoghVincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
whom she admired for his talent and who was a friend of her brother
Eugène BochEugène Boch was a Belgian painter, born in Saint-Waast, Nord, Hainaut, and the younger brother of Anna Boch, a founding member of Les XX....
.
The Vigne RougeThe Red Vineyard is an oil painting by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, executed on a privately-primed Toile de 30 piece of burlap in early November 1888...
(
The Red Vineyard), purchased by Anna Boch, was long believed to be the only painting Van Gogh sold during his lifetime. The Anna Boch collection was sold after her death. In her will, she donated the money to pay for the retirement of poor artist friends.
Legacy
140 of her own Paintings were left to her godchild Ida van Haelewijn, the daughter of her gardener. Many of these paintings show Ida van Haelewijn as a little girl in the garden. In 1968 these 140 paintings were purchased by her great nephew Luitwin von Boch, the CEO of
Villeroy & BochVilleroy & Boch is a large manufacturer of ceramics with the company headquarters located in Mettlach, Germany.-Company history:The company began in the tiny French village of Audun le Tiche, where François Boch set up a pottery company with his three sons in 1748. Later, the company moved to...
Ceramics. The paintings remained in the house of Ida van Haelewijn until her death in 1992. The Anna & Euegen Boch Museum / Expo opened March 30 2011.
Some paintings were also donated by Anna Boch's will to various Museums like the Musées Royaux de Beaux Arts de Belgique.
Different exhibition of her life and work were held at the Royal Museum of Mariemont with Morlanwelz,
between October at December 2000 or in the Vincent van Gogh Huis in 2010.
Her name is associated with famous Museums like the
Pushkin MuseumThe Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour....
in Moscow,
the
Musée d'OrsayThe Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture,...
in Paris or the Van Gogh Huis in the Netherlands.
External links
Anna Boch.com - includes painting reproductions
Newsletter on Anna Boch