Alice Fischer

Daughter of a major from Leuven

Alice Fischer was born in Leuven on 18 May 1863. Her father, Achilles-Jean-Charles Fischer, was a major in the 1st Regiment of Mounted Hunters in Ixelles. When she was 10 years old, the family moved to Ypres. Her father Achilles was put in charge of the cavalry school there.

Private lessons

In Ypres, the family met the artist Auguste Böhm. At the time, he was director of the Ypres Academy. Girls were not admitted at that time. Böhm took her under his wing and gave her private lessons. We do not know whether it was Böhm himself who discovered the talent of the young Alice Fischer. Perhaps he took her under his wing at the request of her parents. Between 1874 and 1876, she copied many of his drawings of Ypres facades. The family then moved away from Ypres.

Artist of flower arrangements

Alice Fischer married twice. First to Charles Hennequin, Baron de Villermont. After his death, she married Jean-Auguste Prévost de la Boutetière. This marriage gave her the title of Countess de la Boutetière.

In 1936, Alice Fischer moved back to Ypres, this time for good. She continued to specialise as an artist in flower arrangements and portraits, working in both oil and pastel. She also presented her work at several salons, such as the Salon of Ghent in 1883.

Alice Fischer died on 28 February 1953 at the age of 90 in the Boomgaardstraat in Ypres. One of her daughters, Renée Hennequin de Villermont, reported her death. Renée was a painter in Paris. The succession was therefore assured.

The collection of the Ypres Museum

The Ypres Museum owns 47 works by Alice Fischer, including 45 drawings, a watercolour drawing and an oil painting. Of particular interest are the drawings she made between 1874 and 1876. Alice Fischer was only 11 years old at the time, so very young! These were her first practice pieces, which she drew under the guidance of Auguste Böhm.

Significance of her work

Many of her works are direct copies of drawings by Auguste Böhm. Between 1842 and 1849, he made a whole series of pencil drawings of Ypres facades, mainly wooden ones. The series was already well known during his career and the Stedelijk Museum acquired dozens of them over the years.

Unfortunately, they were all lost during the First World War. We are therefore reliant on copies, including these by Alice Fischer. They offer a glimpse of the originals and were also adapted by Böhm himself. In 1972, the Stedelijk Museum was able to acquire several of these early drawings by Alice Fischer.

One drawing in this series stands out: the house at 12 Boterstraat. We see a 13th-century stone façade. Böhm made the original drawing in 1848. One year later, the house was demolished because it was in too poor a condition. Alice Fischer made her copy in 1876 and therefore only had Böhm's drawing as inspiration.

Böhm's original drawing was purchased by the Stedelijk Museum in 1848 but disappeared during the First World War. Fortunately, in addition to Alice Fischer's copy, we also have a photograph of the original, taken by Louis Duhameeuw, and a preparatory sketch by Auguste Böhm himself. Together, these three works form a remarkable whole. They show how a work of art never stands alone. Even if the original is lost, it still leaves traces in other works.