Self-Portrait
Artist / maker
Josse Sébastien Van den Abeele (painters (artists))Date
ca. 1830Period
19th centuryCollection
Museum of Fine Arts Ghent
Most of the works of art by Josse Sébastien Van den Abeele refer to his thirteen-year stay in Italy. When he arrived in Rome in 1823 he was barely twenty-five years old. The young artist depicts himself here during one of his visits of antique ruins in the Italian landscape. His sketchbook is resting on an antique sarcophagus. He was…
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Most of the works of art by Josse Sébastien Van den Abeele refer to his thirteen-year stay in Italy. When he arrived in Rome in 1823 he was barely twenty-five years old. The young artist depicts himself here during one of his visits of antique ruins in the Italian landscape. His sketchbook is resting on an antique sarcophagus. He was heavily influenced by the German artist colony, the Nazarenes. The clear contours and the transparent composition refer to their artistic example. His work however represents a more accessible, picturesque form of neo-Classicism. In 1838 Van den Abeele returned to his native city of Ghent, where he taught at the academy until 1844.
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