Pierre Olivier Joseph Coomans

Anonymous sale, Horta, Brussels, 12 November 2001, lot 105.

E. de Kerckhove, 'Revue de l’Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts de 1845', in Bulletin et Annales de l'Académie d'Archéologie de Belgique - T.3, Antwerp, Fromen, Marché-aux-souliers, 665, 1846, pp. 81-82.

Brussels, Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1845, no. 108.

Active in the nineteenth century Belgian Romantic and Orientalist movement, Pierre Olivier Joseph Coomans (1816–1889) trained in history and genre painting at the Ghent Academy and then at the Académie Royale des Beaux-arts in Antwerp. Attached to the general staff of Maréchal Bugeaud in Kabylia at the request of Queen Louise-Marie d’Orléans, he discovered Algeria in 1843, where he met the painter Horace Vernet. During this trip and those that followed, he accumulated drawings and sketches which he used to refresh his repertory, while developing an Orientalist style. His oeuvre was further transformed by his experience as a military artist during the Crimean War (1854–1855) and by his stay in Naples, where he discovered Pompeii. After spending time in Greece and Turkey, he finally settled in France in 1860.

His discovery of North Africa in the 1840s exposed Joseph Coomans to new landscapes, peoples and customs. In 1845, he displayed a painting commissioned by the government at the Salon de l’Exposition des Beaux-arts in Brussels: a Flight into Egypt, in which the Holy Family is depicted coming across a caravan beside a well and an oasis, in the middle of the desert. The Virgin stands with the infant Jesus in the centre of the composition, easily recognized by the colour of their clothes and their pale complexions, with all eyes turned towards them. On their right, Joseph is at a lower level, leaning on a stick, beside the ass accompanying them on their flight. Facing them, their hosts observe them respectfully, apparently ready to strike up a conversation.

As can also be seen in In Front of the Mausoleum (1845, Van Ham Kunstauktionen Cologne, 19 May 2022, lot 643) and The Exchange (1847, Tajan Paris, 30 May 2013, lot 160), Coomans brought back from his travels in the East a new approach to light, dazzling with sunlight and strong contrasts. He pays particular attention to picturesque details, especially the rendering of textures, textiles and objects. Here, in a brightly lit setting, he portrays the people he may have met during his travels, offering Western viewers an idealized and dreamlike imaginary.