(Albano 1843–1931 Venice) The Water Carrier, signed and dated Eugene De Blaas 188(7), oil on panel on panel, 67.3 x 47.6 cm, framed, (Rei)

Compare:
Thomas Wassibauer, Eugen von Blaas, Hildesheim 2005, p. 127, no. 83 and p. 137, no. 162.

Eugen von Blaas
The artist was born in Albano, near Rome, the son of the painter Carl von Blaas. The father actively encouraged his son’s talent, allowing him to study at the Academy in Venice from a young age. He painted portraits and genre scenes depicting life in the streets of Venice. Blaas painted the variety of fabrics and facial expressions with an ever increasing technical perfection, developing a delicate realism expressed in the extreme brilliance of his colours. The portraits of women he painted from 1880 onwards, most in miniature format and on panel, lead to his sobriquet of “the painter of Venetian beauties”. Thomas Wassibauer writes of the 1880s in the introduction to his catalogue raisonné, “In the following years, up to 1890, Eugen’s mastery blossomed fully and he enjoyed adding rich and complex decorative elements to his paintings. These included old copper pots, a variety of flowers and colourful fruit. However, he paid particular attention to old brick and stone walls, as well as cobbled streets, consistently contrasting the morbid grandeur of old Venetian stonework with fresh flowers and fruit or young people, whilst avoiding references to the concept of vanitas, the transitory nature of life. Instead, the young people he portrayed bring life to the ancient walls of this still important city, and in doing so create an apparently endless continuity between the generations, one which perpetuates the Venetian way of life and traditions.” (Thomas Wassibauer, Eugen von Blaas 1843–1931, Hildesheim, 2005, p. 19f.)