View source for Virginie Bovie

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox artist
|name=Virginie Bovie
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|birth_name=Virginie Bovie
|birth_date=ca. 1821
|birth_place=[[Brussels]], Belgium
|death_date=ca. 1888
|death_place=
|occupation=
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'''Virginie Bovie''' (1821–1888), full name '''Joséphine-Louise-Virginie Bovie''', was a Belgian painter and arts patron. In 1870, she was described as "well known",<ref>"Bien connue": ''Revue de belgique'' 4 (January 1870), p. 76 [https://books.google.com/books?id=bd4WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA76 online.]</ref> but she has fallen into neglect in the 20th and early 21st centuries and only seven of her more than 200 works have been located.<ref>As of 2005; see Anne-Marie ten Bokum, "Virginie Bovie, een vergeten Brusselse schilderes," ''Art&fact'' 24: ''Femmes et créations'' (2005) [http://www.artfact.ulg.ac.be/revue/be/ten_bokum/index.html retrieved] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706132307/http://www.artfact.ulg.ac.be/revue/be/ten_bokum/index.html |date=6 July 2011 }} 26 July 2010.</ref>

==Life and career==
Bovie was born in [[Brussels]] and studied drawing first under Frans-Karel Deweirdt (1799–1855) before becoming part of the painting [[Atelier Method|atelier]] of [[Antoine Wiertz]] (1806–1865), whose "megalomanic conceptions" she is said to have picked up.<ref>Katlijne van der Stighelen and Mirjam Westen, ''À chacun sa grâce'' (Flammarion, 1999), p. 247.</ref> From 1850 forward, she regularly exhibited her works at the annual [[Salon (art)|salons]] of Brussels, [[Antwerp]], and [[Ghent]].<ref>Katlijne van der Stighelen and Mirjam Westen, ''À chacun sa grâce'' (Flammarion, 1999), p. 247.</ref> These were [[History painting|historical]] and [[allegory|allegorical]] scenes, [[Portrait painting|portraits]] or [[genre works|genre pieces]].<ref>''Dictionnaire des femmes belges: XIXe et XXe siècles'' (Éditions Racine, 2006), p. 75 [https://books.google.com/books?id=fIPj8NRvuNAC&pg=PA75 online.]</ref> By the time she was 30, Bovie had executed two large-scale paintings for her parish church.<ref>Ten Bokum, "Art&fact"</ref>

She began a tour of Italy in 1855 with her older sister, [[Louise Bovie]], a writer whose collected stories were published posthumously in 1870.<ref>''Dictionnaire des femmes belges'', p. 75.</ref> Of the 300 Belgian painters, sculptors, [[engraving|engravers]], and architects who traveled to Italy to study during the period 1830–1914, only five are thought to have been women; Bovie is one of three whose presence there is attested with certainty. She visited Rome, Florence, Naples, and Venice, obtaining permission to copy paintings in the [[Florence#Art|galleries of Florence]]<ref>Christine A. Dupont, ''Modèles italiens et traditions nationales: les artistes belges en Italie, 1830-1914'' (Institut historique belge de Rome, 2005), p. 222.</ref> as she did later in Paris at the [[Louvre]], where in 1858 she reproduced ''[[The Raft of the Medusa]]'' by [[Théodore Géricault]].<ref>Alexia Creusen, ''Femmes artistes en Belgique'' (Harmattan, 2007), p. 66.</ref> Bovie painted several [[Canvas#Canvas for painting|works on canvas]] drawing on Italian subject matter, including ''[[Naples|Neapolitan]] Woman with Child'' (1857),<ref>Dupont, ''Modèles italiens'', p. 563.</ref> and exhibited some of these at the 1866 salon in Brussels and the 1879 salon in Antwerp.<ref>''Dictionnaire des femmes belges'', p. 75.</ref>

Her father was a [[Rentier capitalism|rentier capitalist]], and Bovie was able to remain financially independent and unmarried throughout her life. She lived in [[Saint-Josse-ten-Noode]] and [[Ixelles]], suburbs of Brussels that were favored by artists. She built a ''grand maison'' at 208 rue de Trône, Ixelles, and had ''Musée Bovie'' carved into one of the foundation stones. She lived there for many years with Louise, who also never married, and used the house as exhibition space. Her cousin Félix Bovie, a painter, and the sculptor [[Antoine-Félix Bouré]] also showed their works there.<ref>Ten Bokum, "Art&fact"</ref> In an 1873 English-language guide describing a six-day walking tour of Brussels, the Musée Bovie was noted as near the Musée Wiertz.<ref>''The Stranger's Guide to Brussels and Its Environs'' (Brussels, 1873, 5th ed.), p. 7 [https://books.google.com/books?id=JU8WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA7 online.]</ref>

Bovie persisted with history painting at a time when it had become unfashionable,<ref>''Dictionnaire des femmes belges'', p. 75.</ref> but her subject matter shows great variety. Her economic and personal independence enabled her to focus her energies on her career as a painter. The art historian Anne-Marie ten Bokum has conjectured that Bovie was a lesbian.<ref>Ten Bokum, "Art&fact"</ref>

Virginie and Louise had a third sister, Hortence or Hortense, who married François-Joachim-Alexandre Rouen and appears to have outlived him and both her sisters.<ref>Legal records pertaining to the [[Estate (law)|estates]] of Virginie and Hortense, whose full name is given as Joséphine-Françoise-Hortense Bovie, appear in P. de Paepe, ''Pasinomie: collection complète des lois, décrets, arrêtés et règlements généraux qui peuvent être invoqués en Belgique'' (Brussels, 1892), pp. 141–142 [https://books.google.com/books?id=X9QLAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Hortense+Bovie%22  online.]</ref>

Upon Bovie's death, the state declined the bequest of her ''musée'' and allowed its contents to be auctioned off.<ref>''Dictionnaire des femmes belges'', p. 75.</ref> A catalogue for the auction, held in February 1889, was compiled by Jules de Brauwere.<ref>Jules de Brauwere, ''Catalogue de Musée Bovie qui sera vendu par suite du décès de Mademoiselle Virginie Bovie'' (1889).</ref>

==Work==
The auction catalogue for the estate lists 170 works of art by Bovie, in addition to 71 she had collected.<ref>Description of the ''Catalogue de Musée Bovie'', "Artists' Atelier and Studio Auction Catalogues List" (2009) compiled by Andrew Washton, [http://www.jegercatalogues.com/atelier/Washton_Atelier_list.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713101008/http://www.jegercatalogues.com/atelier/Washton_Atelier_list.pdf |date=13 July 2011 }}</ref> She is thought to have produced at least 204 works, an unusually high figure for a woman at the time, but as of 2005, only seven could be located. In addition to her grand historical and religious paintings, some of which were official commissions, her diverse oeuvre includes scenes of contemporary life, [[still life|floral arrangements]], and portraits. Unlike the large-scale paintings, the genre works appeal to a bourgeois sensibility and permit a female perspective.<ref>Ten Bokum, "Art&fact"</ref>

In the first decade of the 21st century, ''The Crucifixion'' and ''Descent from the Cross'' were still on view at the [[:fr:Église Saints-Jean-et-Nicolas|Église Saints-Jean-et-Nicolas]] at [[Schaerbeek]] in Brussels.<ref>Creusen, ''Femmes artistes en Belgique'', p. 129.</ref> These early paintings show the influence of Wiertz and masters of the [[Flemish Baroque painting|Flemish Baroque]] such as [[Rubens]] and [[Caspar de Crayer|de Crayer]].<ref>Ten Bokum, "Art&fact"</ref>

Bovie exhibited ''The Visitation'' and ''The Iconoclasts at the Cathedral of Antwerp'' at the Antwerp salon of 1861. A reviewer remarked:

<blockquote>
They show evidence of substantial [[Study (art)|studies]], a good grasp of [[Composition (visual arts)|composition]], great feeling for [[Color theory|color]]—all qualities which are grounds for astonishment in a woman and in a century when painting shines with more grace than power.<ref>''Ils témoignent de fortes études, d'une bonne entente de la composition, d'un grand sentiment de la couleur, toutes qualités qui ont lieu d'étonner chez une femme, et dans un siècle où la peinture brille plus par la grâce que par la force'': G.-J. Dodd, "Les Beaux-arts au salon d'Anvers en 1861," ''Revue Trimestrielle'' 32 (October 1861), p. 309 [https://books.google.com/books?id=TM8LAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA309 online.]</ref>
</blockquote>

Through her observation of [[Venetian school (art)|Venetian masterworks]], her use of color gained warmth and luminosity. During the last decade of her life, she gradually renounced the [[Academic art|academic tradition of painting]] and her style became freer.<ref>Ten Bokum, "Art&fact"</ref>

Other known works are the ''Neapolitan Woman with Child'' (1857), among those inspired by her travels in Italy; ''L'affranchissement de l'[[Scheldt|Escaut]]'' (1863), a drawing in black chalk ''([[:fr: Pierre noire (dessin)|pierre noire]])'' and [[sanguine]] that came to auction in Belgium in 2009;<ref>The dimensions of ''L'affranchissement de l'Escaut'' are 17.75 x 14.5 inches (45 x 36.8&nbsp;cm), as given by [http://web.artprice.com/ps/artitems.aspx?view=all&idarti=NDczMjQyMTUwMTgwODAxMi0=&page=1&refGenre=E Artprice] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316000136/http://web.artprice.com/ps/artitems.aspx?view=all&idarti=NDczMjQyMTUwMTgwODAxMi0=&page=1&refGenre=E |date=16 March 2012 }}, "Drawing-Watercolour at auction" [http://web.artprice.com/ps/artitem/?id=5115421  details], Retrieved 27 July 2010. The online auction catalogue description may refer to the ''[[trois crayons]]'' technique.</ref> and a [[self portrait]] (1872).

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Selected bibliography==
* P. & V. Berko, "Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875", Knokke 1981, p.&nbsp;70.
* Virginie Bovie in ''Dictionnaire des femmes belges: XIXe et XXe siècles'' (Éditions Racine, 2006), with a black-and-while reproduction of her [https://books.google.com/books?id=fIPj8NRvuNAC&pg=PA75 self-portrait]
* Anne-Marie ten Bokum, "Virginie Bovie, een vergeten Brusselse schilderes," ''Art&fact'' 24: ''Femmes et créations'' (2005) [https://web.archive.org/web/20110706132307/http://www.artfact.ulg.ac.be/revue/be/ten_bokum/index.html (in French)]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bovie, Virginie}}
[[Category:1820s births]]
[[Category:1888 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from Brussels]]
[[Category:Belgian women painters]]
[[Category:Feminist artists]]
[[Category:Lesbian artists]]
[[Category:19th-century Belgian women artists]]
[[Category:19th-century Belgian painters]]
[[Category:Place of death missing]]
[[Category:19th-century women painters]]