Antique Jan van Beers Oil Painting with Photographs of the Artist and Ephemera

Item Details

An antique oil painting portrait on canvas, with a vintage photograph of the artist, along with a variety of ephemera. The painting is by listed artist Jean Marie Constantin Joseph ‘Jan’ van Beers (Belgian, 1852-1927). The painting likely depicts a Mrs. Althea Pease, seated on a garden bench, wearing a pearl necklace and white silk gown with gold trim. The painting is signed Jan van Beers to the lower left, and is presented in an ornate gilded wood frame with a hanging wire on the verso. Included with the painting is a vintage black and white photograph of the artist, which is autographed to the upper mat board, ‘To Mr. and Mrs. Livesay, my good friends – Jan van Beers’. Other ephemera includes an envelope with a vintage U.S. 8-cent postage stamp on it, postmarked May 22, 1944. Another photograph of the artist has a long note written on the back, discussing the painter and his portrait of Mrs. Pease. There is also an antique photograph of two young children, identified on the back by name, along with a date of February 1914. There are a variety of other antique photographs, including one that appears to depict the subject of the painting in her later years. Most of the photographs date to the early twentieth-century.

Joseph ‘Jan’ van Beers was the son of the famous poet Jan van Beers. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium. He began his career as a history painter, and in 1876 at the age of twenty-five, he created his epic painting Funeral For Charles Le Bon, which he exhibited at the Salon of 1877. He later merged into genre and portrait painting, and he was also a successful commercial illustrator.

Condition

- good to fair:
- frame has minor scuffs and scratches.
- letters and pictures have minor surface damage, wear
- some items show grime or dust and may benefit from cleaning

Dimensions

- frame dimensions given

Item #

17LAX186-297