Georges Croegaert

(1848 – 1923)

The borders between Holland, Belgium and France have changed over the years considerably.  Croegaert was born in Anvers in 1848.  As a result, various countries have often claimed him to be of their nationality and whilst dictionaries state that he was a Dutch painter, his style owes very much more to the French than to his own country. 

He spent most of his life in Paris where he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais.  George Croegaert’s fame today is very largely recognised through his portrayal of Cardinals in the rich surroundings of French Chateaux and Palaces.  It is believed that Croegaert used Fontainbleau often as a back-cloth for his settings and certainly his Cardinals are considered to be amongst his finest works. 

However, his rarer works are often equally as fine.  He did a number of portraits of fashionable female ladies at the height of “Le Belle Epoch” with subjects as diverse as nudes to highly finished paintings of panoramic views of the Seine on a Sunday afternoon with the Paris society strolling and punting in its surroundings.  Even rarer still were the subjects that he painted of country people in sporting landscapes with the most beautifully and finely detailed observation of their guns and apparel.  His subjects often varied in size from being extremely choice small paintings to really quite substantial exhibition pieces. 

In all his works though, he maintained a precision and clarity of brush work that was almost unique and stood comparison to any of the finest painters throughout the whole of Europe.  The onlooker can only marvel at his detail and he built up a successful reputation for himself during his lifetime both in France, London and exhibiting in New York.  He has been widely collected in the USA.