Edouard De Vigne (1808-1866): Animated mountain landscape with a waterfall, oil on canvas

Work: 138,5 x 100 cm

Edouard De Vigne (August 1808, Ghent – May 1866, Ghent) was a Belgian romantic landscape painter. He was the son of the decorative painter Ignatius De Vigne (1767-1840, Ghent) and the brother of painter Félix De Vigne (1806-1862, Ghent), sculptor Pierre De Vigne (1812-1877, Ghent) and musician Alexandre Devigne (1814-1869, Ghent). After his education at the Art Academy in Ghent, he became a private student of the Ghent landscape painter Paul Surmont de Volsberghe. In 1834 he was awarded a first prize for landscape painting in Antwerp. This earned him a grant to undertake a trip to Italy. He stayed in Italy from 1836 to 1839. His wife, whom he had married shortly before his departure in 1834, died during this trip as a result of cholera in the town of Portici. After Italy, he also travelled around England in 1841. He was a member of the Société des Amis des Beaux-Arts de Gand.

Edouard De Vigne belonged to the last group of artists who still experienced the Italy trip in the "old way", because the railway network would suddenly bring Italy much closer from the 1840s to 1850s. The investment in time, money and effort suddenly became much more bearable. Our work is typical of his oeuvre: De Vigne takes the viewer to the heart of the Apennines, in the region between Umbria and the Abruzzo. A remote, lonely and wild area with high mountain peaks. De Vigne's romantic view with the flattering color scheme, the soft, even paint surface, almost makes the viewer forget the inhospitability of this area. (link)