JEAN

See also:

• FRANCOIS (1558-1614)

FRANCOIS

See also:

• JEAN FRANCOIS PORTAELS (1818-1895)

PORTAELS (1818-1895)  , Belgian painter, was born at Vilvorde (Brabant), in Belgium, on the 3oth of April 1818 . His father, a rich brewer, sent him to study in the Brussels Academy, and the director, Francois Navez, ,ere long received him as a pupil in his own studio . About 1841 Portaels went to Paris, where he was kindly received by Paul Delaroche . Having returned to Belgium, he carried off the Grand Prix de Rome in 1842 . He then travelled through Italy, Greece, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, the Lebanon, Judaea, Spain, Hungary and Norway . On his return to Belgium in 1847 Portaels succeeded H . Vanderhaert as director of the academy at Ghent . In 1849 he married the daughter of his first master, Navez, and in 185o settled at Brussels; but as he failed in obtaining the post of director of the academy there, and wished, nevertheless, to carry, on the educational work begun by his father-in-law, he opened a private studio-school, which became of great importance in the development of Belgian art . He again made several journeys, spending some time in Morocco; he came back to Brussels in 1874, and in 1878 obtained the directorship of the academy which had so long been the object of his ambition . Portaels executed a vast number of works . Decorative paintings in the church of St Jacques-sur-Caudenberg; biblical scenes, such as " The Daughter of Sion Reviled " (in the Brussels Gallery), " The Death of Judas," " The Magi travelling to Bethlehem," " Judith's Prayer," and " The Drought in Judaea "; genre pictures, among which are " A Box in the Theatre at Budapest " (Brussels Gallery), portraits of officials and of the fashionable world, Oriental scenes and, above all, pictures of fancy female figures and of exotic life . " His works are in general full of a facile grace, of which he is perhaps too lavish," wrote Theophile Gautier .

Yet his pleasing and abundant productions as a painter do not constitute Portaels's crowning merit . The high

place his name will fill in the history of contemporary Belgian art is due to his influence as a learned and clear-sighted instructor, who formed, among many others, the painters E . Wauters and E . Agneesens, the sculptor Ch. van der Stappen, and the architect Licot . He died at Brussels on the 8th of February 1895 . See E . L. de Taeye, Peintres belges contemporains; J. du Jardin, L'Art flamand . (F .