Lines and Colors

Jessica Hayllar, a British painter active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, focused largely on interiors and domestic scenes, and later in her career, on florals.

Like her four sisters, Hayllar was tought by her father, James Hayllar, who was a painter of portraits, landscape and genre subjects. Jessica took painting to heart with more dedication than her sisters, though her sister Edith also successfully exhibited.

Jessica Hayllar’s work was less academically restrained than that of her father. Her interiors and florals are often bathed in sunlight from windows and doors that open to yards and gardens. Her floral still life subjects usually featured visually appealing pottery and often included more of the room interior than typical still life arrangements.

Every once in a while I come across a painter to whom I have the delightful reaction of “Wow! How did I not know about this one before?”

That was my response when I stumbled across a painting by Johannes Jacobus Maria ‘Jan’ Bogaerts, a Dutch painter active in the early to mid 20th century, whose work carries wonderful echoes of his 17th century predecessors.

In searching for more of his work, I found beautifully subtle and muted landscapes, often cast in low light with subdued value relationships, and, in particular, striking still life paintings that are somehow simultaneously restrained and bold.

I’ve seen plenty of still life that would fit in the category of “realism”, but there is something about the balance of naturalistic representation and painterly effect in Bogaert’s simple arrangements that I find especially appealing.

Part of the appeal, I think, is his choice of still life objects that are chipped or cracked and otherwise show signs of age and wear, as well as background walls and tiles that show something of the same.

The best source I’ve found for images of Bogaert’s work is a Dutch gallery, Simonis & Buunk. Their page includes a bio of the artist as well as links to large images.

Portrait of Henriette Mayer van den Bergh, Jozef Van Lerius; oil on canvas, roughly30 x 25 inches (75 x 64 cm), link is to downloadable file page on Wikimedia Commons; original is in the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp, Belgium.

Jozef Van Lerius was a 19th century Belgian painter who painted biblical and mythological subjects as well as genre paintings and portraits.

In this portrait of art collector and museum founder Henriette Mayer van den Bergh — in whose collection this portrait hangs — Van Lerius demonstrates his command of soft edges, delicate value relationships and restrained color.