Artist of the day: June 2026

Antoine Joseph Wiertz (1806–1865) was a Belgian painter, one of the great eccentrics in the history of art. In 1832 he won the Belgian Prix de Rome and when he visited Italy in 1834 he was overwhelmed by Michelangelo. His other great artistic hero was Rubens and he tried to follow in their footsteps with enormous and high-flown religious, historical, and allegorical canvases.

The results now seem almost dementedly bombastic and melodramatic, but he had many admirers among his countrymen. The Belgian government was keen to promote a national school of painting and in 1850–1 built him a special studio in Brussels (now the Musée Wiertz). He worked there in isolation for the rest of his life, regarding himself as an artist-philosopher and totally convinced of his own genius. Some of his work is erotic or macabre in character and presages Belgian Symbolism

Confliction opinion
For a painter/sculptor who is still largely unrecognised outside his native Belgium, Antoine Joseph Wiertz Self Portrait certainly divides opinion. The art dictionaries and encylopedias that bother to mention him in their brief entries variously describe his work as banal, melodramatic, morbid, mystical, ambitious. Opinions about the artist himself are equally conflicting, ranging from visionary, eccentric, to meglomaniacal.

Magical Eroticism
The work chosen to lead one into this shadowy world is The Young Witch (aka The Young Sorceress; La jeune Sorcière) of 1857. Wiertz's painting is suitably charged with a combination of innocence, overt sexuality, grotesquerie, and supernatural danger. Those lecherous faces in the top left corner remind us that we too are voyeurs of this curious scene, lit by the voluptuous fleshtones of Wiertz's nubile temptress, who is provocatively 'penetrated' by that thrusting, phallic broomstick. The tension arising from the artist's cunning juxtaposition of painterly classicism and somewhat crude titillation invests the work with a striking, magical eroticism.

Extreme States of consciousness
A second encounter with Wiertz's work came via another book cover - the 1978 Penguin Classics edition of Lautréamont's Maldoror and Poems. This time the painting was The Premature Burial (aka Buried Alive; Inhumation précipitée) of 1854. Art commentator, Jeffery Howe, suggests that Wiertz was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, in whose fiction premature burial is a recurring theme

© 2026. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Antoine Joseph Wiertz or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Antoine Joseph Wiertz Autoportrait, c.1835-36

Double portrait of the artist and his father

Allegory with Skull, c.1824

La mère de l'artiste, c.1832

Greeks and Trojans Fighting over the Body of Patroclus, c.1836

Esmeralda, c.1839

Quasimodo, c.1839

The Fable of the Three Wishes — Human Insatiability, c.1839

Le jeune Noir, c.1840-45

La chute des mauvais anges c.1842

La jolie jardinière, c.1845-50

Portrait de Monsieur Greindl, c.1845-50

Portrait de Madame Greindl, c.1845-50

Etude pour "Confidence" c.1846

The confidence, c.1848

The beautiful Rosine, c.1847

Amours et Papillon, c.1848-50

Les Partis jugés par le Christ, c.1850-55

Hunger, Madness, Crime, c.1853

La liseuse de romans, c.1853

The premature burial, c.1854

The crucifixion of Peter, c.1855

La jeune sorcière, c.1857

Etude pour "On se retrouve au ciel" c.1859

Portrait de Maria Merten, c.1860

The Triumph of Light, c.1862

A Scene from Hell, c.1864

Civilization in the 19th Century, c.1864

Le bouton de rose, c.1864

Based in the heart of the Yvelines region, Christophe Charbonnel (1967) began his career as a draftsman and subsequently a sculptor in the Walt Disney studios. Having studied modeling at the École Duperré, he has spent the last twenty years imbuing his bronzes with a powerful, reinvented classicism.

Christophe Charbonnel has a particular affinity for the hieratic, solemn figure—a quality he cultivates in his full-length sculptures. His faces and monumental groups are invariably imbued with a dramatic tension that lends them an undeniable beauty. Emotion lies at the very

In the heart of his work. As the artist himself puts it: "If nothing is happening—if I feel nothing—I would rather smash the piece and move on to something else."

Deeply committed to the creation of monumental works, he also explores the theme of the sculptural group. In 2010, he was named a laureate of the Taylor Foundation.

In recent years, museum institutions have increasingly placed his work in the spotlight. Indeed, following an exhibition at the Archaeological Museum of Aléria in Corsica—which subsequently acquired three of his monumental sculptures

Having exhibited at prestigious art fairs and salons (TEFAF Maastricht, Masterpiece London, PAD Paris, La Biennale Paris, among others), his public profile has continued to rise through the installation of monumental sculpture trails in cities across France (including Paris, Chartres, and Dinard). In 2024, the cities of Saint-Raphaël and Les Sables-d'Olonne dedicated their public spaces to showcasing his work.

Furthermore, Christophe Charbonnel’s monumental sculptures are on permanent display at the Château du Plessis-Brion / Galerie Bayart.

© 2026. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Christophe Charbonnel or Christophe Charbonnel. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only