Johann Bernard Klombeck

(1815 - 1893)

A winter landscape

This present work is a collaboration by Klombeck and Eugene Verboeckhoven (1799 - 1881)

Signed and dated, lower right: J B Klombeck ft 1871/Eugene Verboeckhoven
Oil on canvas
36 x 48¼ in – 92 x 122.5 cm
Frame size
42¼ x 54½ in – 107.3 x 138.4 cm
 

Tel.: +44 (0)20 7839 7693

Provenance

Anon. sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 28 May 1981, lot 43;
W. H. Patterson, London;
MacConnal-Mason Gallery, London;
Private collection, UK, April 1994;
Thence by descent
 

Biography

Johann Klombeck was a pupil of Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803-1862), one of the finest landscape painters of the Dutch Romantic School and his influence had a lasting effect on his pupil’s work. Klombeck exhibited his work throughout Holland, firstly in Nijmegen in 1841 and later in Amsterdam, Groningen, Rotterdam, The Hague and Leeuwarden.

Eugène Verboeckhoven was Flemish by birth and was the son of the sculptor Bartholemy Verboeckhoven (1754-1840). It was he who taught his son to effectively model the figures he painted and with his guidance, Verboeckhoven was to become the greatest Flemish animal painter of the 19th century. Enormously successful, his work was exhibited and collected throughout Europe and in the United States and he was awarded the highest honours of France, Belgium, Portugal and Germany.

The association of Klombeck and Verboeckhoven began in the late 1840’s and continued until Verboeckhoven’s death. Periodically the two painters would work together, Klombeck providing the landscape elements of the work and Verboeckhoven the figures and animals. For each, the association allowed the artist to diversify from his usual style of painting, introducing new interest into his work.

Examples of their combined work are in museums in Kleef and Brussels. Additionally, examples by Klombeck can be seen in London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Leeds, City art gallery, in the Jan Cunen Museum, Oss and Verboeckhoven’s work is in museums throughout the world.

Klombeck Johann Bernard