Balthasar-Paul Ommeganck

Who was Balthasar-Paul Ommeganck?

Balthasar-Paul Ommeganck, a distinguished painter of landscapes and animals, was born at Antwerp in 1755, and studied under Hendricus Josephus Antonissen from 1767. In 1789 he became dean of the Guild of St. Luke in his native city, and in 1796 professor in the Academy there. In 1799 he won the first prize for landscapes in Paris, and in 1809 became a corresponding member of the Institute. He was also a member of the Academies of Amsterdam, Brussels, Ghent, Munich, and Vienna. He died at Antwerp in 1826. He was one of the commissioners of 1815, appointed by Belgium to reclaim from France the objects of art which she had acquired by force of arms during the great war. During his life his works were in such request that only the rich could obtain them. And yet in handling they were soft, weak, and oversmooth, in conception confused, and in colour poor. It is in fact greatly to the example of Ommeganck that the poor work done by Belgian landscape and animal painters in the early part of the present century is to be traced, especially their shortcomings in tho matter of colour. Carpentero, J. F. Lenzen, and some of the more recent Belgian painters, have imitated his manner; a female painter, long resident in Holland and Belgium, has copied several of his pictures very successfully; and others in England and elsewhere, under the auspices of the dealers, have made it a very profitable speculation. He executed some admired drawings, and also clay models of sheep and cows.