Jean Baptiste Claude Robie 🇧🇪 ( 1821 - 1910 ) | Belgian Still Life Painter | ArtLiveAndBeauty

 

Jean-Baptiste Claude Robie's Paintings & Biography

The future artist's youth was terrible. In Brussels, a farmer's great-grandson, a tinsmith's grandson, and a blacksmith's son were born. His parents, Jean-Baptiste Claude Robie and Maria-Catarina Mommar, had eleven children in all, six boys and five girls. Little Jean-Baptiste spent his boyhood in his father's gloomy forge, which was located opposite St. Peter's Hospital in Brussels. Jean-Baptiste Robie remembers his first drawing competition, which was arranged by someone from St. Peter's Hospital for the youngsters on his neighbourhood. The youngsters were permitted to paint on a corner of the building's wall near the hospital's entrance. Children were thrilled to create the most spectacular drawings on the wall, equipped with coal, chalk, and shards from flower pots.

 

Jean-Baptiste, who does not want to work in a forge, starts painting porcelain and glassware on his own at the age of 11 and sells it to make some money. From then on, and for the next five years (1832-1837), Jean-Baptiste Robie rotated between the studios of a local artist and a stained-glass artist, which was the start of his creative education. Jean, at the age of 16, decides to leave his father's home and travel to Paris to further his education. Going on foot, the adolescent had no idea that he was about to embark on what would turn out to be the most trying and joyless phase of his life. Jean-Baptiste Robie came in Paris after travelling from city to city, ragged, hungry, and impoverished, like a wanderer. He seeks refuge in one of the city's oldest suburbs, Saint-Antoine, on the street Charonne. He shares a room with a visitor "who spoke in a foreign tongue mixed with some French phrases," the meaning of which Jean, as a roommate, did not always grasp. The young man soon understood he had settled in a thief's lair. As a result, on the suggestion of his new buddy, a porcelain painter, Jean left from this region of "death" in a hurry. Jean-Baptiste Robie decides to return home since he is too young to face the perils and temptations of a major city in a foreign place, and he cannot find work or an apprenticeship.

Of course, relying solely on himself, on his experience, courage, stubbornness, and strength to deal with the difficulties he encountered during his trip to Paris, and believing in his talent as an artist, Jean-Baptiste Robie decides to continue painting on porcelain in order to somehow survive and earn some money. He leases a tiny closet in which the only furniture is a massive wooden chest that serves as a closet, a bed, and a table for the young guy. Jean slept in a chest, with the lid open or closed according to the temperature of the room. Roby begins to study history, literature, other languages, music, botany, and other disciplines on his own, spending nearly all of his little savings on books. He begins studying sciences without order or technique, knowing nothing save the capacity to read and write. "The artist made himself, only his guts and drive (and, talent, of course!) Helped the blacksmith's kid acquire excellence and become a noble citizen and a great artist," historians wrote.

Porcelain painting in Belgium went out of favour over time, depriving the artist of a living. But Jean-Baptiste Robie was not discouraged; he rapidly learned about the need for interior design. The truth is that wealthy individuals began to deliberately travel around Europe, wishing to enjoy the same splendour in their houses as they had in palaces overseas. The artist decided to capitalise on this new trend and proceeded to experiment with wall decoration, once again studying the spectacular interiors of palaces in Rome, Genoa, and Florence from literature. Robie enrolled at the Brussels Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1838, where he studied under artist Francois-Balthazar Tasson (François-Balthazar Tasson, 1811-1890). He still lives with Fourmois and is pals with him. Theodore tells Jean-Baptiste Robie to "keep his trousers on" and compose something for sale before submitting it to the gallery where he shows himself. Although they paid little for this since the gallery's owner is a cruel man, a "greedy shrew," as he was dubbed by artists.

Jean-Baptiste Robie gratefully accepts this gift (students are constantly in need of money!). He rapidly orients himself in the desire of gallery visitors, as he did throughout his experience designing residences. The gallery owner urges him to resort to the perennially popular Dutch-Flemish genre of flower-fruit still life. "Make me something bright, shouting with extravagant brilliance," he requested to the artist. My audience will buy your paintings because I know who they are. With us, everything will go smoothly as clockwork!" The first flower still life, humbly inscribed with the letter "R," was sold for 40 francs to a specific Captain M., but orders quickly came in, and the price skyrocketed to 200 francs. Robie was recommended to exhibit his work in the Brussels Salon, but that his new work should not be displayed in galleries or auction houses. This counsel most likely spared the artist from becoming a basic artisan who was just concerned with the business needs of clients. However, one significant advantage of this commissioned experience is that Jean-Baptiste Robie discovered his own topic, which would eventually earn him fame and money.

So, in 1842, the artist made his debut in the Brussels Salon, where his works garnered acclaim from the public and critics alike. Jean-Baptiste Robie has been actively involved in Brussels' creative scene since then, and he is a regular participant in Salons and exhibits. Until 1875, the artist displayed his paintings at the major national Belgian exhibition, constantly receiving medals. The expositions of 1843, 1845, 1848, 1850, 1854, 1857, 1860, 1863, 1867, and 1875 were among the most successful Salons for the artist. He received the Gold Medal of the Salon in 1848 for a lavish flower still life, and a bronze medal in 1850. "This young artist has made significant development, and his creative bravery has been rewarded." His palette is brilliant and striking, and his brushstrokes are light and lively. "He discovers spiritual notions in the picture of flowers, frequently thinks in high categories, while some of his colleagues are frantically striving to transmit the beauty of "dead nature," the press said of Jean-Baptiste Robie.

In 1879, the artist received a silver medal in an exhibition in Sydney. Jean-Baptiste Robie's reputation as a skilled painter was also verified in France. In addition to participating in exhibitions in the 1850s, the artist was featured in 1863 at the Paris Salon and in 1885 at the World Exhibition in Paris in the Belgian pavilion. In his country, Jean-Baptiste Robie was made a knight of the Order of Leopold in 1861; in 1869, he was raised to the officers of the Order; and in 1881, he was consecrated to the Commanders. The artist was also made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in France.

Let us return from the depiction of the artist's victorious ascension to the pinnacles of national fine arts to the artist's everyday existence, which began with a closet and a huge chest that functioned as both a bed and an easel. Back in 1849, after receiving the Salon Gold Medal a year before and exchanging it for gold bars, the artist purchases a property piece near Charleroi, on the route to Saint-Gilles. Jean-Baptiste Robie erected a residence on the property for six years, held a housewarming celebration in 1855, and purchased many more surrounding sites in 1873. The house was elevated to the status of an estate, complete with a huge and magnificent garden in which the artist began to grow roses. Jean-Baptiste Robie became "sick with wanderlust" and resolved to travel after becoming financially independent and a well-known artist.

Jean-Baptiste Robie relates a humorous occurrence that he observed in his book Paradise Ostend. On a sweltering afternoon, two soldiers decided to go swimming. They rushed nude into the water, leaving their garments on the side of the road, and when they were almost out, the carriage of the Queen of Belgium, Leopold II's wife, Maria Henriette of Habsburg-Lorraine (1836-1902) emerged on the road and halted in front of them. The military didn't have time to run and get dressed, so these two daredevils first froze, then slowly covered the causal place with their left hand, like Venus in the Botticelli painting, and with their right hand, they performed a military greeting, "taking it under the visor," according to the Charter. The carriage rushed away as an eruption of laughter erupted from within. Such a plethora of recollections were not only written down, but also extensively decorated in drawings and final paintings.

Jean-Baptiste Robie travelled through Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and England, but his gaze was always pulled to the East. As a result, Roby travelled to Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, and spent nearly two years in India (1880-1881). In his book Journey to India, published in 1886, the artist wrote extensively on his extended stay in India. He constantly returned with a plethora of valuable trinkets: weapons, textiles, sculptures, and idols. As a result, a wonderful collection was collected, and one of his estate's rooms was converted into the "Indian Museum." At his 70 years, Jean-Baptiste Robie continued to be active in the last decade of the nineteenth century. On January 9, 1890, he was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Belgium. On January 8, 1891, he was elected to the Academy; on May 3, 1896, he was assigned to the Commission of the National Biographical Society; and on December 3, 1896, he was named to the Finance Committee. The artist was also a member of the Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture's Executive Committee.

Jean-Baptiste Robie died at the age of 89 on December 8, 1910. Due to his title as Commander of the Order of Leopold and Knight of the Legion of Honor, the artist requested that his funeral be performed without honours or speeches. "I do not want my family members to take care of planning my burial, and I do not want numerous religious rites," Robie said in his will, dated November 25, 1903. Allow my friends Gustave Vacher and Prosper de Vilde to be in charge of my body, cremate me at Paris's Père Lachaise cemetery, and erect any monument. It is my wish that my ashes not be kept. Obituaries should be published in the following six newspapers: Belgian Independence, Star, Chronicle, Evening Herald, Le Petit Bleu, and La Gazette. Military honours and anything associated to funerals, including coffin speeches, are unacceptable to me. I'm assuming that sending flowers or wreaths will be OK.

Portrait of Robie by André Hennebicq