1.5 Lithograph by Pieter Jan De Vlamynck after the portrait of De Meulemeester
In 1836-1837, Pieter Jan De Vlamynck (1795-1850) published a lithographic version of the portrait of De Meulemeester described earlier, which was then in the collection of Joseph van Huerne (1752-1844) in Bruges [12].1 Although the 51 different names and dates on the painting are almost illegible, they are clearly visible on the left edge of the print. This rather disparate series of names, written as if they were graffiti on a pilaster, includes a mix of ‘Belgian’ and French artists [13]. Most of these individuals can be linked to the Académie de France in Rome, or to Joseph-Benoît Suvée (1743-1807), who served as its director from 1801 and played an important role by welcoming numerous pensionaries. Previously, when Suvée taught at the Académie Royale in Paris, he had already attracted numerous former students of the Bruges academy to his studio, some of whom are also mentioned on the Roman list. Through his former students, the artist played a fundamental role in spreading French-oriented neoclassicism in his homeland.2
The following names appear on the list:
Suvée 1801 Directeur / Demuynck van Brugge / Lethière 1807 Directeur/ Van Poucke 1775 / Legillon 1771 / J:B: Suvée 1772 / Van Outryve 1768 / P. Goddyn 1774 / DeSan 1778 / Winckelman 1784 / M. VanLede / Van der Donck 1790 / Duvivier 1790./ J Odevaere 1806 / D: Stockhove 1806 [14]/ Verstappen 1805 / Paelinck / J Ducq 1807 [18] / J Demeulemeester [12] / Ph. Van Brée [15] / Girauld / Vallot/ Delorme 1808 / J.h Van Caloen [16] / L De Potter 1811 [17] / Suys 1813 / Giraud 1808 / Verron 1809 / Richomme / Blondel / Dien 1809 / Gatteau 1809 / P.re Guerin / Abel Poujol / houdebourd/ Triollier / Dedeban / huot / Granger / Ingres / Giot / Garnier/ J. Caloigne 1807.
The following names appear to the right of this list: David / Granet / Girodet / M.elle Lescot / Percier/ Bosio / Comte de Forbin / Fontaine / Bervic.3
While a number of famous artists are mentioned, many have unfortunately hardly ever been subject to study. Some had no formal training as artists but were dilettantes who had completed their Grand Tour or were connected to the religious foundation of Saint Julian of the Flemings.4 How Ducq arrived at this list is unknown, but it must have been based on some kind of archival document. Some names are followed by dates ranging from 1768 to 1813, which are not, however, arranged in strict chronological order.
Apparently there was only one woman considered worth mentioning, a Miss Lescot.5 Nor do there seem to be any of the Northern Dutch artists who were working in Rome during the same period, nor other Flemish artists such as Simon Denis (1755–1813), Cornelis Cels (1778–1859), Ferdinand Delvaux (1782–1815), or even Jan De Vaere (1754–1830 ) who, in Rome, had been active in a British environment.6
12
Pieter Jan De Vlamynck,
Joseph-Charles De Meulemeester, graveur né à Bruges en 1771…d’après le tableau du Cabinet de monsieur Van Huerne de Puyenbeke à Bruges, 1836-1837, lithograph, 463 x 360 mm, Brussels, KBR, S II. 92 434
13
Detail showing names of J. Ducq and J. De Meulemeester in
Pieter Jan De Vlamynck,
Joseph De Meulemeester, graveur né à Bruges en 1771…d’après le tableau du Cabinet de monsieur Van Huerne de Puyenbeke à Bruges, 1836-1837,
lithograph,
Brussels, KBR, S II. 92 434
14
Joseph Odevaere,
Portrait of Donatien Stochove in Rome, 1807
graphite with brown wash on paper, 165 x 165 mm,
Bruges, Groeningemuseum Steinmetzkabinet, inv. no. II.2024.0002
15
Philippe-Jacques Van Brée,
The Artist’s Atelier in Rome, n.d,
oil on canvas, 73 x 96 cm,
Sale London (Christie’s), 15 June 2015, no. 18
16
Passport of Joseph-Bernard van Caloen, dd. 1811. Loppem, Kasteel van Caloen, archives IB 294
17
Joseph Odevaere,
Portrait of Louis de Potter with Guitar, 1811,
oil on canvas, 100 x 75,8 cm,
Loppem, Kasteel van Caloen, inv. no. 00241
Notes
1 Another copy of this lithograph in Brussels, KBR, Prints and Drawings, is inv. no. S II 51701.
2 The name of Joseph-Benoît Suvée appears there twice. About this artist, see Join-Lambert/Leclair 2017.
3 With the exception of the unidentified ‘Verron’, the artists mentioned in the list and to its right can be identified, respectively, as: the painter Andries Peter Victor De Muynck (1738-1813); the painter Guillaume Guillon-Lethière (1760-1832), director of the Académie de France in Rome from 1807-1816; the sculptor Charles Van Poucke (1740-1809) whose portrait is in Join-Lambert/Leclair 2017, p. 196; the painter Jean-François Legillon (1739-1797); the canon Louis-Emmanuel van Outryve (1722-1786) who stayed in Rome in 1773-1774, whose portrait is in Join-Lambert/Leclair 2017, pp. 226-227. Why the date 1768 is mentioned, between 1772 and 1774, remains a mystery; the painter Pieter Matthias Goddyn (1752-1811); the painter Gerardus Xaverius de San (1754-1830); Frans Jacob Wynckelman (1762-1844), aristocrat, landscape painter and head of the Bruges Academy; the painter Maximiliaan Lodewijk van Lede (1759-1834); the painter Franciscus van der Donckt (1757-1813); the painter Jean-Bernard Duvivier (1762-1837), see Marechal 2025; the painter Joseph-Denis Odevaere (1775-1830), who won the ‘Grand Prix’ of the Académie de France in Rome in 1804, Ixelles 1985, pp. 169-171; Donatien Stochove (1778-1834), a Bruges aristocrat who undertook a Grand Tour, see Marty de Cambiaire 2023, there no. 36, pp. 118-119, and Dekeukeleire 2024; the painter Martin Verstappen (1773-1853); the painter Joseph Paelinck (1781-1839); the painter Philippe Jacques van Bree (1786-1871); the sculptor Jean Baptiste Giraud (1752-1830); the architect Simon Vallot (1772-1842); the painter Pierre-Claude-François Delorme (1783-1859); Joseph Bernard van Caloen (1776-1748), the later brother-in-law of Louis de Potter (1786-1859) journalist, revolutionary, politician and writer, and dilettant artist, see Schillings 2014; the architect Tieleman Franciscus Suys (1783-1861); the sculptor Pierre François Grégoire Giraud (1783-1836); the engraver Joseph-Théodore Richomme (1785-1849); the painter Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781-1853); Claude-Marie-François Dien (1783-1865); the engraver Jacques Edouard Gatteaux (1788-1881); the painter Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (1774-1833); the painter Alexandre Denis Abel de Pujol (1785/1787-1861); the architect Louis-Pierre Haudebourt (1788-1849); the sculptor and engraver Nicolas-Pierre Tiolier (1784-1843); the painter Jean-Baptiste Desdeban (1781-1833); the architect Jean Nicolas Huyot (1780-1840); the painter Jean-Pierre Granger (1779-1840); the painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867); the print maker and publisher Laurent Guyot (1756-1808); the painter Etienne Barthélémy Garnier (1759-1849); the sculptor Jean-Robert Calloigne (1775-1830); the painter Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825); the painter and collector Francois Marie Granet (1775-1849); the painter Anne Louis Girodet-Trioson (1767-1824); the painter Antoinette Cécile Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot (1784-1845); the engraver, architect and draftsman Charles Percier (1764-1838); the sculptor and painter François Joseph Bosio (1768-1845); the painter Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste comte de Forbin (1777-1841); the architect Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853); Jean Guillaume Balvay, said Charles Clément Bervic (1756-1822), French engraver and teacher of De Meulemeester in Paris in 1797. Biographical information on some of these artists can be found in Guiffrey/Barthelemy 1908; Coekelberghs 1976 and Ixelles 1986.
4 Schillings 2019.
5 Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot, born Antoinette Cécile Hortense Viel (1784-1845) was in Rome from 1808 until 1816.
6 Marechal 2025.