Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 21

Gérard Jozef Portielje
(Belgian, 1856-1929)
Le commencement de la fin

26 September 2019, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £12,562.50 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our 19th Century & Orientalist Paintings specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Gérard Jozef Portielje (Belgian, 1856-1929)

Le commencement de la fin
signed and inscribed 'Gerard Portielje Antwerpen' (lower right)
oil on canvas
57.5 x 74.5cm (22 5/8 x 29 5/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 22 June 1988, lot 374.
MacConnal-Mason & Son Ltd., London.
Private collection, UK.

Despite his artistic lineage, and his own skill and enthusiasm for drawing, the young Gérard Portielje was encouraged to become a priest and began lessons at Saint Ignace's Commercial School in Antwerp. However he was soon expelled, allegedly for decorating a sculpture of the Blessed Virgin with a moustache. Portielje then followed in the footsteps of his artistic father, becoming a successful painter of interior and genre scenes. During his lifetime Portielje had an international reputation, and between 1897 and 1910 his paintings were mostly sold abroad; for example, in 1907, only four small paintings of twenty-seven were sold locally.

For a similar composition, see Ineke Bruynooghe The works of Portielje, Jan-Gerard-Edward, Antwerp, 2002, p. 223, no. 203.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

Sidney Richard Percy(British, 1821-1886)The Barnmouth Water near Dolgelly, North Wales

Julius Olsson(British, 1864-1942)Summer Sea, Newquay

Edward Seago, RWS, RBA(British, 1910-1974)Old houses, Istanbul

Alois Arnegger(Austrian, 1879-1967)Sunset, Untersberg

Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant(French, 1845-1902)On the roofs

Louis Monro Grier(Australian, 1864-1920) St Ives, Cornwall

Edward Seago, RWS, RBA(British, 1910-1974)The lion of S. Mark - Venice

Sir Alfred James Munnings, PRA, RWS(British, 1878-1959)The leading horses of the Royal Carriage before the Ascot Procession, June 1925

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., ARA, RWS(British, 1833-1898)Portrait of Elsie York

Franz von Defregger(Austrian, 1835-1921)Touristen auf der Alm

John McGhie(British, 1867-1952)Dutch Fisherwomen and Child

Louis-François Cassas(Azay-le-Ferron 1756-1827 Versailles)Studies of Egyptian figures

Ken Howard R.A.(British, 1932-2022)Debora