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PAUL JEAN CLAYS (1819-1900)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 474 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PAUL See also:JEAN See also:CLAYS (1819-1900)  , Belgian artist, was See also:born at See also:Bruges in 1819, and died at See also:Brussels in 1900 . He was one of the most esteemed marine painters of his See also:time, and See also:early in his career he substituted a sincere study of nature for the extravagant and artificial conventionality of most of his predecessors . When he began to paint, the See also:sea was considered by See also:continental artists as See also:worth representing only under its most tempestuous aspects . Artists cared only for the stirring See also:drama of See also:storm and See also:wreck,and they clung still to the old-See also:world tradition of the romantic school . See also:Clays was the first to appreciate the beauty of See also:calm See also:waters reflecting the slow procession of clouds, the glories of sunset See also:illuminating the sails of See also:ships or See also:gilding the tarred sides of heavy fishing-boats . He painted the peaceful See also:life of See also:rivers, the See also:poetry of wide estuaries, the regulated stir of roadsteads and ports . And while he thus See also:broke away from old traditions he also threw off the trammels imposed on him by his See also:master, the marine painter See also:Theodore Gudin (1802–1880) . Endeavouring only to give truthful expression to the nature that delighted his eyes, he sought to render the limpid See also:salt See also:atmosphere, the See also:weight of waters, the transparence of moist horizons, the See also:gem-like sparkle of the See also:sky . A See also:Fleming in his feeling for See also:colour, he set his See also:palette with clean strong hues, and their powerful harmonies were in striking contrast with the rusty, smoky tones then in favour . If he was not a " luminist " in the See also:modern use of the word, he deserves at any See also:rate to be classed with the founders of the modern naturalistic school . This conscientious and healthy See also:interpretation, to which the artist remained faithful, without any important See also:change, to the end of an unusually See also:long and laborious 'career, attracted those minds which aspired to be bold, and won over those which were moderate . Clays soon took his See also:place among the most famous Belgian painters of his See also:generation, and his pictures, sold at high prices, are to be seen in most public and private galleries .

We may mention, among others, " The See also:

Beach at Ault," " Boats in a Dutch See also:Port," and " Dutch Boats in the See also:Flushing Roads," the last in the See also:National See also:Gallery, See also:London . In the Brussels gallery are " The Port of See also:Antwerp," " See also:Coast near See also:Ostend," and a " Calm on the See also:Scheldt "; in the Antwerp museum, " The See also:Meuse at See also:Dordrecht "; in the Pinakothek at See also:Munich, " The Open See also:North Sea "; in the See also:Metropolitan Museum of See also:Fine Arts, New See also:York, " The Festival of the Freedom of the Scheldt at Antwerp in 1863 "; in the See also:palace of the See also:king of the Belgians, " Arrival of See also:Queen See also:Victoria at Ostend in 1857 "; in the Bruges See also:academy, " Port of Feirugudo, See also:Portugal." Clays was a member of several See also:Academies, Belgian and See also:foreign, and of the See also:Order of See also:Leopold, the See also:Legion of See also:Honour, &c . See Camille See also:Lemonnier, Histoire See also:des See also:Beaux-Arts (Brussels, 1887) . (O .

End of Article: PAUL JEAN CLAYS (1819-1900)
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