Anna Boch
Portrait photo of Anna Boch (before 1900)
Born10 February 1848
Saint-Vaast, Belgium
Died25 February 1936(1936-02-25) (aged 88)
Ixelles, Belgium
NationalityBelgian
Known forPainting
MovementPointillism, Impressionism
Falaise - Côte de Bretagne. 62 x 84 cm. Oil on canvas.'

Anna-Rosalie Boch (10 February 1848 – 25 February 1936), known as Anna, was a Belgian painter, art collector, and the only female member of the artistic group, Les XX.[1] Born in Saint-Vaast, Hainaut. Anna Boch died in Ixelles in 1936 and is interred there in the Ixelles Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium.

Boch's family was involved in art in different ways. Her father, Frédéric Victor Boch, was a successful manufacturer of porcelain; her brother, Eugène Boch, was a painter, and her cousin, Octave Maus, was an art critic.[1][2]

Artistic style

Anna Boch, c. 1889, by Théo van Rysselberghe

Boch participated in the Neo-Impressionist movement. Her early works used a Pointillist technique, but she is best known for her Impressionist style which she adopted for most of her career. A pupil of Isidore Verheyden, she was influenced by Théo van Rysselberghe whom she met in the artistic group, Les XX.

Collecting

Boch actively collected works of art by her contemporaries. She assembled a major collection of Post-Impressionist paintings, which included works by Paul Gauguin, Paul Signac, James Ensor, and Vincent van Gogh.[2][1][3] She promoted many young artists, including Van Gogh, whom she admired for his talent and who was a friend of her brother Eugène Boch. La Vigne Rouge (The Red Vineyard),[4] purchased by Anna Boch, is believed to be the only painting Van Gogh sold during his lifetime. The Anna Boch collection was sold after her death. In her will, she donated the money to pay for the retirement of poor artist friends.

Legacy

140 of her own paintings were left to her godchild, Ida van Haelewijn, the daughter of her gardener. Many of these paintings show Ida van Haelewijn as a little girl in the garden. In 1968, these 140 paintings were purchased by her great nephew Luitwin von Boch, the CEO of Villeroy & Boch Ceramics. The paintings remained in the house of Ida van Haelewijn until her death in 1992. The Anna & Eugène Boch Expo opened 30 March 2011.[5]

Some paintings were also donated by Anna Boch's estate to various museums like the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.[6]

Exhibitions about her life and work have been held at the Royal Museum of Mariemont at Morlanwelz, between October at December 2000 and the Vincent van Gogh-huis in Hoogeveen in 2010.

Cultural heritage

The Red Vineyard, by Vincent van Gogh, (1888) bought from him by Anna Boch

In 2005, the Belgian historian Dr Therèse Thomas published a catalogue raisonné.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Block, Jane; Lee, Ellen Wardwell; Cultuurcentrum, I. N. G.; Art, Indianapolis Museum of (25 March 2014). The Neo-Impressionist Portrait, 1886?1904. Yale University Press. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-300-19084-7.
  2. 1 2 "Discover painter, art collector Anna Boch". rkd.nl. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
  3. ↑ "Anna Boch Collection".
  4. ↑ "History of the Red Vineyard".
  5. ↑ "Opening of the Anna & Eugene Boch Expo".
  6. ↑ Gaze, Delia; Mihajlovic, Maja; Shrimpton, Leanda (1997). Dictionary of Women Artists: Introductory surveys ; Artists, A-I. Taylor & Francis. pp. 283–4. ISBN 978-1-884964-21-3.
  7. ↑ "Anna Boch : catalogue raisonné". rkd.nl. Retrieved 6 February 2023.

Sources

  • P. & V. Berko, Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875, Knokke 1981, p. 51.
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