ERROR MSG

(Amsterdam, 1821 - 1909)

Rooster, hens and ducks in a stable interior, 1845

Oil on panel

ERROR MSG20 3/4" x 15 1/4" 

29 1/2" x 24" framed

CL: Henriette Knip 1845

          An artist of the Dutch school, Ronner-Knip painted primarily genre scenes, landscapes, still lives, and especially animals.  The daughter of artist Joseph-August Knip, she was also his student, painting mostly still lifes and genre scenes in her youth.  In the year 1836, when she was only 15 years of age, she both exhibited and sold her first work in Dusseldorf, which was quite a feat for such a young artist.  When she married, however, her husband turned quite ill and the family was forced to move to Brussels in 1859.  It was here that she began to paint her famed animals scenes, and especially the celebrated canvases of cats and kittens, for they proved to be the most constant and inexpensive models. This sector of her oeuvre is praised not only for her ability to give such individualistic character to her subjects, but also for her ability to render the luscious and elegant interiors in which the animals commonly frolic.

          Because of the popularity of her works, Ronner-Knip exhibited rather regularly at the Paris Salons and throughout England, where her paintings are still highly coveted and collected to this day.  She is known to have exhibited works in London in both 1862 and 1892, but in addition showed her pieces at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (4), the Royal Society of Artists at Birmingham (2), the Fine Arts Society (115), the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts (38), the Goupil Gallery (31), the Manchester City Art Gallery (10), the New Gallery (2), the Royal Academy (16), the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (16), the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (13), the Royal Scottish Academy (24), the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours (1), and the Society of Women Artists (1).  Her pieces remain respected in today's modern age, and this painting in particular serves as a good example of her mid-career subject and style.

Recorded:

Benezit, Emmanuel.  Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs.  (Paris: Librairie Grund, 1976).

Berko, Patrick and Viviane.  Dictionary of Belgian Painters Born Between 1750 & 1875.  (Brussels:  Editions Laconti,  1981).

Duvosquel, Jean-Marie  and Philippe Cruysmans.  Dictionary of Belgian and Dutch Animal Painters Born Between 1750 and 1880.  (Knokke-Zoute, Belgium:  Berko,  1998).

Johnson, J.  and A. Greutzner.  Dictionary of British Art, Volume V: British Artists, 1880 - 1940.  (Suffolk:  Antique Collectors' Club Ltd.,  1990).

Le Dictionnaire des Peintres Belges du XIVe Siecle a Nos Jours.  (Brussels:  La Renaissance du Livre,   1995).

Piron, Paul.  De Belgische Beeldende Kunstenaars.  (Brussels: Art in Belgium,  1998).

Schurr, Gerald   and Pierre Cabanne.  Dictionnaire des Petits Maitres de la Peinture 1820 1920.    (Paris:  Les Editions de LAmateur,  1996).