Alphonse De Clercq, The Return Of The Priest

Alphonse De Clercq, The Return Of The PriestThis early 20th century oil painting by Belgian artist Alphonse De Clercq (1868 1945) depicts a priest returning home by moonlight. The snow covered roofs of rustic cottages sit slumped in a quiet village. Silence only broken by the shuffling footsteps of two figures heading home towards a welcoming fire. The priest ambles amid an orange glow with long shadows cast via a moon rendered with impasto. One gets the sense that De Clercq knew this area with

Medium: Watercolour on paperOverall size: 10” x 14” / 26cm x 36cmYear of creation: c

A moment of calm at the end of a long day

a thicket of trees marks the entrance to a forest

It had everything a landscape painter longed for and became a source of inspiration for a new movement in art

The Danes have a strong heritage of capturing an evocative atmosphere and Panitzsch would’ve enjoyed the inspiration

but it’s highly likely that the artist trained under Frederik Vermehren at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

which only increased her importance and notoriety

and some as teachers in other schools’

000 achieved for ‘Summer Days’ at Christie’s in 2013

Medium: Oil on canvasOverall size: 14” x 16” / 36cm x 41cmYear of creation: c

Further reading at Sotheby’s

There’s imagination