This colourful oil study by the painter Albert Anker shows a detail of a Kachelofen, or stove, which is partially clad with green and blue-and-white tiles. It epitomises the genre which Anker made his own and which has led him to become one of Switzerland’s most famous 19th century artists.
Anker concentrated on the life of ordinary people in their surroundings in the small towns and villages of late 19th century Switzerland. Often, his own children would feature, and he always beautifully captures the ordinary moments of life, showing youngsters at play or men and women going about their business with studied concentration. In all his paintings, a great sense of pathos emerges, revealing the true empathy he felt for the world of simple folk. His keen eye for detail allowed him lend to the plain interiors of simple houses and mundane artefacts a fragile sense of beauty.
A tiled stove featured in many of Anker’s finished oil paintings[1], and this is not surprising, as the realist Anker was always intent on portraying surroundings that would have been immediately recognisable to his contemporaries. Stoves of the kind depicted in our oil study were very common in Switss houses of that time. Our study also evidences Anker’s meticulous attention to detail. The cracks in the tiles as well as the little motifs baked into the glaze have been registered with a confident touch of the brushstroke. Interestingly enough, the study has an almost linear quality to it, giving it an abstract feel due to the sharpness of the angular lines.
Albert Anker was born in 1831 in Ins (near Bern). He initially commenced studying theology, but soon discovered a calling to become an artist. Between 1854-56 he studied in Paris under Charles Gleyre and until 1860 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. From then on, until 1890, he divided his time between Paris and Switzerland. He often exhibited at the Paris Salon with great success and sold his work through the famous Parisian art-dealer Adolphe Goupil. After 1890, he returned permanently to his native Ins. Deteriorating health made it difficult for him to paint in his last years, but he left behind a wonderful oeuvre which has led to him become a much sough-after artist.
_______________________
1. For example, Stubenecke mit Kachelofen, Nr G 1955.9, Kunstmuseum Basel
Anker concentrated on the life of ordinary people in their surroundings in the small towns and villages of late 19th century Switzerland. Often, his own children would feature, and he always beautifully captures the ordinary moments of life, showing youngsters at play or men and women going about their business with studied concentration. In all his paintings, a great sense of pathos emerges, revealing the true empathy he felt for the world of simple folk. His keen eye for detail allowed him lend to the plain interiors of simple houses and mundane artefacts a fragile sense of beauty.
A tiled stove featured in many of Anker’s finished oil paintings[1], and this is not surprising, as the realist Anker was always intent on portraying surroundings that would have been immediately recognisable to his contemporaries. Stoves of the kind depicted in our oil study were very common in Switss houses of that time. Our study also evidences Anker’s meticulous attention to detail. The cracks in the tiles as well as the little motifs baked into the glaze have been registered with a confident touch of the brushstroke. Interestingly enough, the study has an almost linear quality to it, giving it an abstract feel due to the sharpness of the angular lines.
Albert Anker was born in 1831 in Ins (near Bern). He initially commenced studying theology, but soon discovered a calling to become an artist. Between 1854-56 he studied in Paris under Charles Gleyre and until 1860 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. From then on, until 1890, he divided his time between Paris and Switzerland. He often exhibited at the Paris Salon with great success and sold his work through the famous Parisian art-dealer Adolphe Goupil. After 1890, he returned permanently to his native Ins. Deteriorating health made it difficult for him to paint in his last years, but he left behind a wonderful oeuvre which has led to him become a much sough-after artist.
_______________________
1. For example, Stubenecke mit Kachelofen, Nr G 1955.9, Kunstmuseum Basel
Green Tiled Stove, 1894
Dated lower centre: 4 JAN 94
Oil on canvas
23 x 31,5 cm
Provenance
Private collection, Switzerland;
Private collection, United Kingdom (since 2015)
Literature
Kunstmuseum Bern (ed): Albert Anker. Katalog der Gemälde und Ölstudien, Bern 1962, no.588 (repr).
This colourful oil study by the painter Albert Anker shows a detail of a Kachelofen, or stove, which is partially clad with green and blue-and-white tiles. It epitomises the genre which Anker made his own and which has led him to become one of Switzerland’s most famous 19th century artists.
Anker concentrated on the life of ordinary people in their surroundings in the small towns and villages of late 19th century Switzerland. Often, his own children would feature, and he always beautifully captures the ordinary moments of life, showing youngsters at play or men and women going about their business with studied concentration. In all his paintings, a great sense of pathos emerges, revealing the true empathy he felt for the world of simple folk. His keen eye for detail allowed him lend to the plain interiors of simple houses and mundane artefacts a fragile sense of beauty.
A tiled stove featured in many of Anker’s finished oil paintings[1], and this is not surprising, as the realist Anker was always intent on portraying surroundings that would have been immediately recognisable to his contemporaries. Stoves of the kind depicted in our oil study were very common in Switss houses of that time. Our study also evidences Anker’s meticulous attention to detail. The cracks in the tiles as well as the little motifs baked into the glaze have been registered with a confident touch of the brushstroke. Interestingly enough, the study has an almost linear quality to it, giving it an abstract feel due to the sharpness of the angular lines.
Albert Anker was born in 1831 in Ins (near Bern). He initially commenced studying theology, but soon discovered a calling to become an artist. Between 1854-56 he studied in Paris under Charles Gleyre and until 1860 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. From then on, until 1890, he divided his time between Paris and Switzerland. He often exhibited at the Paris Salon with great success and sold his work through the famous Parisian art-dealer Adolphe Goupil. After 1890, he returned permanently to his native Ins. Deteriorating health made it difficult for him to paint in his last years, but he left behind a wonderful oeuvre which has led to him become a much sough-after artist.
_______________________
1. For example, Stubenecke mit Kachelofen, Nr G 1955.9, Kunstmuseum Basel
Anker concentrated on the life of ordinary people in their surroundings in the small towns and villages of late 19th century Switzerland. Often, his own children would feature, and he always beautifully captures the ordinary moments of life, showing youngsters at play or men and women going about their business with studied concentration. In all his paintings, a great sense of pathos emerges, revealing the true empathy he felt for the world of simple folk. His keen eye for detail allowed him lend to the plain interiors of simple houses and mundane artefacts a fragile sense of beauty.
A tiled stove featured in many of Anker’s finished oil paintings[1], and this is not surprising, as the realist Anker was always intent on portraying surroundings that would have been immediately recognisable to his contemporaries. Stoves of the kind depicted in our oil study were very common in Switss houses of that time. Our study also evidences Anker’s meticulous attention to detail. The cracks in the tiles as well as the little motifs baked into the glaze have been registered with a confident touch of the brushstroke. Interestingly enough, the study has an almost linear quality to it, giving it an abstract feel due to the sharpness of the angular lines.
Albert Anker was born in 1831 in Ins (near Bern). He initially commenced studying theology, but soon discovered a calling to become an artist. Between 1854-56 he studied in Paris under Charles Gleyre and until 1860 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. From then on, until 1890, he divided his time between Paris and Switzerland. He often exhibited at the Paris Salon with great success and sold his work through the famous Parisian art-dealer Adolphe Goupil. After 1890, he returned permanently to his native Ins. Deteriorating health made it difficult for him to paint in his last years, but he left behind a wonderful oeuvre which has led to him become a much sough-after artist.
_______________________
1. For example, Stubenecke mit Kachelofen, Nr G 1955.9, Kunstmuseum Basel
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