Musea Brugge has once again further enriched its core collection of Neo-Classical works, this time with a drawing by Joseph-Benoît Suvée and a painting by Joseph-François Ducq. Both acquisitions can be associated with other works by the same artists, which sheds a unique light on the artistic process.
Musea Brugge has further enhanced its art patrimonium with an early drawing by Joseph-Benoît Suvée (Bruges 1743 – Rome 1807) and a painting by Joseph-François Ducq (Ledegem 1762 – Bruges 1829). The drawing of St. Sebastian was made in 1774 by Suvée, a native of Bruges, during his study trip as a ‘pensionnaire’ at the ‘Académie de France’ in Rome. Two years earlier, Suvée had won the highly coveted Rome Prize, as a result of which he was able to spend the following two years in the city. Ducq’s painting of 'Venus brings Paris to Helen’s apartment in Sparta’ is a refined work that was originally part of the Bruges collection of Baron Anselme de Peellaert. Both works were recently purchased in France from Galerie Michel Descours.
Foto 1: Augustinus Van den Berghe, St. Sebastiaan, 1780-1790, oil on canvas, 193 x 129,5 cm, (Musea Brugge, inv. 0000.GRO0131.I)
(copy of a painting by Suvée from the year 1777)
Foto 2: Joseph-François Ducq, Venus brings Paris to Helen’s apartment in Sparta, 1806, oil on canvas, 63 x 48 cm
(signed and dated on the pedestal: ‘J. Ducq. FAT.1806’)
Foto 3: Joseph-Benoît Suvée, St. Sebastian, 1774, Pen and brown ink, brown wash, highlights in white gouache on paper, 41.5 x 26 cm. Signed and dated in the bottom left corner ‘J.B. Suvée f.1774’
Foto 4/5: Joseph Ducq, Study for Paris and Compositional and figure studies for the painting ‘Venus brings Paris to Helen’s
apartment in Sparta’, ca. 1806 (drawing in black chalk, 50.7 x 38.5 cm, inv. 0000.GRO2088.II and drawing in pencil and pen with brown ink, 18.4 x 16.8 cm, inv. 0000.GRO2514.II).