Jan Verhas

For the Dutch snooker referee, see Jan Verhaas.

Jan Verhas (date unknown)

Jan Francois Verhas (9 January 1834 – 31 October 1896) was a genre painter and is considered the founder of the School of Dendermonde, best known for his paintings of children of the Belgian bourgeoisie, in a classical style but with a natural feeling to them.

Biography

Born in Dendermonde as the younger brother of painter Frans Verhas. His wife was the aunt of Louise Ponselet-Saintenoy. He studied at the Academy of Dendermonde and the Academy in Antwerp, finishing with the Belgian Prix de Rome in 1860. The Belgian government commissioned him to travel to Venice where he made the painting "Velleda et la Bataille de Callao" in 1862. The next four years, he lived in Binche, where he married. He then moved to Brussels. Verhas was a regular of the Salons of the time, winning a second class medal in the Paris Salon Exposition of 1881, and a gold medal at the 1889 Exposition Universelle. He was made a Chevalier in the Legion of Honor in 1881. Jan Verhas died in Schaarbeek in 1896.

Paintings by Jan Verhas can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp and the City Hall of Dendermonde.

Selected paintings

• 
  De Meesterschilder (1877) Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent
• 
  Ezelrit op het strand (1884) Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
• 
  Les Demoiselles van den Perre (1887) Musée Communal des Beaux-arts d'Ixelles
• 
  La Revue des Écoles (1878) Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

References

• P. & V. Berko, "Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875", Knokke 1981, p. 745-747.
• P. & V. Berko, "19th Century European Virtuoso Painters", Knokke 2011, p. 519, illustrations p. 292-293, 301, 303.

External links

• Media related to Jan Verhas at Wikimedia Commons