Aquarel Ouvrié

A remarkable acquisition

The Ypres Museum has acquired an original “Ouvrié” painting of Ypres. It is a beautiful, large watercolour, signed and dated: “Hôtel de ville d’Ypres, 18 Août 1848, Justin Ouvrié”.

Pierre Justin Ouvrié (1806-1879)

Artist Pierre Justin Ouvrié was a successful French painter. He painted extremely realistic, charming and picturesque cityscapes. He lived in Paris but travelled constantly in search of inspiration and subjects.

This brought him to Flanders in the second half of the 1840s: to Bruges, Ghent, but first and foremost to Ypres. He exhibited his first painting of Ypres, “Vue de la grande place et de la halle, à Ypres (Belgique)”, in 1847 at the Salon de Paris, the most important art exhibition in Europe. In 1848, it was on display in Brussels and in 1849 in Antwerp. His painting of Ypres was well received: Ouvrié received a medal from the organisers of the exhibition in Brussels and critics wrote favourably about his work: “Ouvrié's canvases are excellent, truthful and magnificent examples of the correct application of perspective and the play of light”.. The painting ended up in the collection of the Musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer.

The watercolour, a copy of the painting?

At first glance, the watercolour appears to be a copy of the painting. However, a thorough comparison of the two works shows that the watercolour is an independent new creation, with significant differences:

Ouvrié moved further north for the watercolour. As a result, part of the Neermarkt is missing and we see more of the Nieuwerck and the adjacent inns and houses on the right. As the foreground of the watercolour is much more sparsely furnished, the steps leading up to the belfry with the two lions are clearly visible. These steps must therefore have been demolished in 1848. The same applies to the slender crossing tower of St. Martin's Church, which is more detailed here.

A particularly valuable work, a masterpiece.

Rare

As far as can be ascertained, the Ypres Museum is the only museum in Belgium to own work by this French painter.

Indispensable

The watercolour shows one of the most important buildings and squares in Flanders, shortly before both underwent radical changes. The large, typical houses with wooden facades were quickly demolished due to the fire hazard and replaced by stone houses. The large hall staircase disappeared because it did not feel original during the first restoration of the Cloth Hall.

Reference value

The work provides important new insights into timber construction in Flanders and into the Cloth Hall as the largest secular building in Western Europe.

Link

With this work on Ypres, Ouvrié shifts his focus to Ypres. It is a relevant link in the development of this artist's oeuvre.