Henry Cleenewerck

Henry Cleenewerck (Belgian 1825-1901) Early Morning in Cuba signed and dated 'Henry Cleenewerck 1870' (lower left) oil on canvas 32½ x 24 in. (83 x 61 cm.) Painted in 1870. Provenance De Vuyst, Lokeren, Belgium, Impressionism, 19th Century, Modernand Contemporary Art, 13 December 2008, lot 67. Acquired from the above by the present owner. Henry Cleenewerck's naturalistic landscape art was the productof a global career, during which he witnessed many of the politicalupheavals that reshaped the nations of the western world. He wasborn in the village of Watou, Belgium, within walking distance ofthe border with France, to French parents. He studied art in nearbyPoperinge and in the ancient town of Ieper (previously known asYpres). In the mid-1850s he traveled to the United States and by1860 worked in Savannah, Georgia, where he exhibited BonaventureCemetery (c.1860; Telfair Museum, Savannah) at Armory Hall thatMay, and in November was on hand when news of Abraham Lincoln'selection sparked a demonstration for Secession from the Union. Hissketch of the scene was lithographed by R.M. Howell with the titleThe First Flag of Independence Raised in the South by the Citizensof Savannah Georgia, Nov. 8th 1860 (Library of Congress).(1) Withinsix months, the Civil War had broken out and Cleenewerck must havedeparted the city. The next we hear of him is in the mid-1860s inHavana, Cuba, where he was commissioned to paint landscapes formany of the distinguished families who had become wealthy fromsugar plantations. Jose María Ximeno in 1865 had in his privatecollection several scenes of the sugar-rich Matanzas province,including the Yumuri Valley, Canimar River, and San Antonio de losBaños. Again, however, the artist had the bad luck to be present ata moment of political upheaval and about 1868, when Revolutionbroke out, he moved to Paris.(2) Established in his Parisianstudio, he reminisced about his recent Cuban sojourn and producedpictures such as this Early Morning in Cuba, where his directobservation of nature on the island was filtered through nostalgiaand memory. The canvas bears the date 1870, when serene pictures ofNew World nature provided a beneficial antidote to events inFrance, including a war with Prussia and the fall of the ParisCommune in 1871. He remained in the French capital, often paintingCuban scenes, until at least 1873. Early Morning in Cuba demonstrates the artist's considerable skill.He painted the scene on a nearly square canvas, an especiallychallenging format, in which the dense vegetation and choking vinesare relieved with a glimpse of sky above and reflection in thewater below. He had a particular fondness for including wildlifeand especially deer in his forest interiors. Here two deer stand inthe stream feeding on vegetation with a third, further distant,barely visible in the tree screen. The image presents a tropicalidyll, undisturbed by the presence of man. Spending his early years on the flat, gray Belgian coast madeCleenewerck hunger for new and exotic scenery, just as it laterdrove Symbolist painter James Ensor, living in nearby Ostend, toconjure strange forms and colors. By 1880 Cleenewerck was again inthe United States, this time in California, where he painted thesplendors of Yosemite Valley. A handful of his western landscapeshave been located including South Wall, Yosemite and IndianEncampment, Yosemite but it is likely that more await rediscovery.Cleenewerck also participated in the life of the nascent SanFrancisco art scene, where he served as a judge for the annualexhibition of the California School of Design and showed his worklocally.(3) Similarly, in Cuba his art was shown in the mostimportant exposition held there in the 19th century, theInternational Exposition of Matanzas of 1881. At the end of hislife he returned home to Belgium, where he died in Brussels in1901. His descendant Marguerite Yourcenar (born Cleenewerck deCrayencour), the first female member of the Académie Française,wrote about their family.(4) His work is included in the permanentcollection of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Cuba. (c) Katherine E. Manthorne, Professor of Modern Art of theAmericas, The Graduate Center, CUNY. 1) Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. 2) Information supplied by Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL. 3) E. M. Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940. 3rd. ed.Sacramento, CA., Crocker Art Museum, 2002, 1:221. 4) L. Cleenewerck, Biographical Overview of the Cleenewerck Family(www.euclid.int/library/cleenewerck)

Henry Cleenewerck (Belgian 1825-1901) Early Morning in Cuba signed and dated 'Henry Cleenewerck 1870' (lower left) oil on canvas 32½ x 24 in. (83 x 61 cm.) Painted in 1870. Provenance De Vuyst, Lokeren, Belgium, Impressionism, 19th Century, Modernand Contemporary Art, 13 December 2008, lot 67. Acquired from the above by the present owner. Henry Cleenewerck's naturalistic landscape art was the productof a global career, during which he witnessed many of the politicalupheavals that reshaped the nations of the western world. He wasborn in the village of Watou, Belgium, within walking distance ofthe border with France, to French parents. He studied art in nearbyPoperinge and in the ancient town of Ieper (previously known asYpres). In the mid-1850s he traveled to the United States and by1860 worked in Savannah, Georgia, where he exhibited BonaventureCemetery (c.1860; Telfair Museum, Savannah) at Armory Hall thatMay, and in November was on hand when news of Abraham Lincoln'selection sparked a demonstration for Secession from the Union. Hissketch of the scene was lithographed by R.M. Howell with the titleThe First Flag of Independence Raised in the South by the Citizensof Savannah Georgia, Nov. 8th 1860 (Library of Congress).(1) Withinsix months, the Civil War had broken out and Cleenewerck must havedeparted the city. The next we hear of him is in the mid-1860s inHavana, Cuba, where he was commissioned to paint landscapes formany of the distinguished families who had become wealthy fromsugar plantations. Jose María Ximeno in 1865 had in his privatecollection several scenes of the sugar-rich Matanzas province,including the Yumuri Valley, Canimar River, and San Antonio de losBaños. Again, however, the artist had the bad luck to be present ata moment of political upheaval and about 1868, when Revolutionbroke out, he moved to Paris.(2) Established in his Parisianstudio, he reminisced about his recent Cuban sojourn and producedpictures such as this Early Morning in Cuba, where his directobservation of nature on the island was filtered through nostalgiaand memory. The canvas bears the date 1870, when serene pictures ofNew World nature provided a beneficial antidote to events inFrance, including a war with Prussia and the fall of the ParisCommune in 1871. He remained in the French capital, often paintingCuban scenes, until at least 1873. Early Morning in Cuba demonstrates the artist's considerable skill.He painted the scene on a nearly square canvas, an especiallychallenging format, in which the dense vegetation and choking vinesare relieved with a glimpse of sky above and reflection in thewater below. He had a particular fondness for including wildlifeand especially deer in his forest interiors. Here two deer stand inthe stream feeding on vegetation with a third, further distant,barely visible in the tree screen. The image presents a tropicalidyll, undisturbed by the presence of man. Spending his early years on the flat, gray Belgian coast madeCleenewerck hunger for new and exotic scenery, just as it laterdrove Symbolist painter James Ensor, living in nearby Ostend, toconjure strange forms and colors. By 1880 Cleenewerck was again inthe United States, this time in California, where he painted thesplendors of Yosemite Valley. A handful of his western landscapeshave been located including South Wall, Yosemite and IndianEncampment, Yosemite but it is likely that more await rediscovery.Cleenewerck also participated in the life of the nascent SanFrancisco art scene, where he served as a judge for the annualexhibition of the California School of Design and showed his worklocally.(3) Similarly, in Cuba his art was shown in the mostimportant exposition held there in the 19th century, theInternational Exposition of Matanzas of 1881. At the end of hislife he returned home to Belgium, where he died in Brussels in1901. His descendant Marguerite Yourcenar (born Cleenewerck deCrayencour), the first female member of the Académie Française,wrote about their family.(4) His work is included in the permanentcollection of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Cuba. (c) Katherine E. Manthorne, Professor of Modern Art of theAmericas, The Graduate Center, CUNY. 1) Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. 2) Information supplied by Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL. 3) E. M. Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940. 3rd. ed.Sacramento, CA., Crocker Art Museum, 2002, 1:221. 4) L. Cleenewerck, Biographical Overview of the Cleenewerck Family(www.euclid.int/library/cleenewerck)

Lot 36 Henry Cleenewerck (American, 1818-1901) Riding the Hay Cart Signed "H Cleenewerck" l.r., identified on a label on the frame. Oil on canvas mounted onto board, 8 1/4 x 11 1/4 in. (20.8 x 28.5 cm), framed. Condition: Scattered retouch, varnish inconsistencies. Estimate $300-500

Henry Cleenewerck (1818-1901) Rainforest above Santiago de Cuba signed and dated 'Henry Cleenewerck. Paris. 1869' (lower left), signed and inscribed 'Ce tableau est une étude d'après nature dans les hautes régions de Santiago-de-Cuba par moi -- Henry Cleenewerck' on the reverse oil on canvas 36½ x 26¾in. (92.7 x 67.9cm.) Lot Notes A native of Watou, Belgium, Cleenewerck travelled to the United States in 1854 and was in Cuba for around five years in the 1860s, returning to Europe in 1868 and establishing his studio in Paris, where he continued to produce Cuban landscapes inspired by his recent Cuban sojourn.

Henri Cleenewerck (Belgian, 1818-1901) An Indian camp by a river signed 'Hry Cleenewerck' (lower left) oil on canvas laid down on panel, unframed 23 x 40.5 cm. Lot Notes In 1854 Cleenewerck left for the United States of America and in1865 for Cuba for several years. Between 1880 and 1900 he returnedseveral times to America. Possibly the present lot was painted inthis last period.