Sunset on the Heath

Throughout his life, Adrien-Joseph Heymans worked in the vicinity of Kalmthout, in the Kempen area in Antwerp Province. After the example of Hippolyte Boulenger and artists who worked around the village of Tervuren near Brussels, a group of like-minded landscape artists came together in Kalmthout in the 1870s. They shared a predilection for painting in the open air and strove…

Throughout his life, Adrien-Joseph Heymans worked in the vicinity of Kalmthout, in the Kempen area in Antwerp Province. After the example of Hippolyte Boulenger and artists who worked around the village of Tervuren near Brussels, a group of like-minded landscape artists came together in Kalmthout in the 1870s. They shared a predilection for painting in the open air and strove for an atmospheric depiction of nature. Their greyish landscapes did not reflect nature, however. On the contrary, these artists saw nature as a reflection of their own mood. We also see this melancholy vision in the early work of Adrien-Joseph Heymans, as in Sunset on the Heath.