Jean Baptiste Discart

Jean Baptiste Discart (5 October 1855, Modena, - Paris, 1 January 1940) was an internationally oriented working engraver, painter and draftsman. In addition to still lifes, he painted paintings with orientalist themes and especially Dutch portraits.

According to the baptismal deed, he was baptized on 6 October 1855 in the Parish Church of San Domenico. His father Francesco Ferdinando Discart (Modena, March 6, 1819 - Vienna, June 27, 1893) worked at the court of Francesco IV, Duke of Modena. He was married to Emilia Goldini (Livorno, 1819 - Modena, August 23, 1895). Modena belonged to the Austria-Hungary Empire in 1855. In 1861 the area was transferred to the Kingdom of Italy.

After completing his education at the Modena gymnasium, Discart enrolled on October 25, 1869 at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna. He would study there, with interruptions, through 1880/1881. His most important teachers at the Academy were Anselm Feuerbach (1829-1880) and Leopold Carl Müller (1834-1892). In the first works by Discart, the influence of Feuerbach is clearly recognizable. After Feuerbach's death, an initial refusal to continue studying at the Academy was allowed. Leopold Karl Müller himself belonged to the Austrian school of orientalists. Discart further developed his own style based on this. Jean Baptiste Discart grounded a lifelong network at his Academy. His fellow students included Ludwig Deutsch (Vienna, 1855 - Paris, 1930), Rudolf Ernst (Vienna, 1854 - Fontenay-aux-Roses, 1932), Johann Rudolf Weiss (1859-1930) and Karel de Merode (Mödling, 1853 - Vienna, 1909).

Jean Baptiste Discart in Paris and Tangier

From 1880/1881, Discart settled in Paris where he frequently spent time with his former fellow students Ludwig Deutsch and Rudolf Ernst, who had already settled there. They not only met each other in the cultural capital of that time but also influenced each other. Both Discart and Deutsch and Ernst opted for orientalism in painting.

The orientalist paintings are signed with Jean or J.B. Discart. Some are provided with a year. A number are also provided with the place name: Tangier or Paris. Jean Baptiste Discart made his first paintings in Vienna. He then settled in Paris. The then capital of painting. He probably started in Tangier, Morocco with the painting of oriental paintings. We do not know for sure whether he has also been to other countries. The oriental paintings by Discart show us the daily life in Tangier and Morocco in the period around 1880-1920. This concerns the crafts, customs and traditions that must have occurred to Discart in Tangier and Morocco. He also recorded the lives of the residents such as Berbers, street scenes, musicians on canvas and on panel. Discart has put his orientalistic subjects back in a realistic way. He paid a lot of attention to good light lining, the use of color and a good composition. The lining in the paintings in particular is sometimes so good that it is probably better and more beautiful than it actually would have been. The paintings signed with J.B. Discart, Tangier will certainly be made there. A limited number of paintings are signed with J.B. Discart, Paris. On the basis of this, it can be concluded that Discart has made or completed a number of Orientalist paintings in Paris on the basis of photographs or other images and representations. Jean Baptiste Discart belonged to the Austrian Orientalist school by his birth in Modena, which belonged to Austria-Hungary until 1861, his education at the Academy of Arts in Vienna and his lifelong friendship with his Viennese fellow students and their network.

In 1897 Discart in Tangier, Morocco portrayed Siegfried Erbgraf zu Castell-Rüdenhausen in Eastern dress. The person portrayed worked for the German diplomatic service in Morocco. This portrait forms, as it were, the transition to Dutch and other portraits. Discart probably worked on oriental paintings until around 1920.

Jean Baptiste Discart in the Netherlands

From around 1895, Discart produced portraits in the Netherlands. The first portrait he made was that of lady Alwina Brantsen (1868-1957), probably made in The Hague. Discart painted her father in 1899, and her daughter in 1902, and three other members of the Brantsen family in 1903. Subsequently, he made important series of portraits of the Van Lynden, Van Pallandt van Neerijnen and Waardenburg families, Huyssen van Kattendijke, Pauw van Wieldrecht, Van Limburg Stirum, Baud-Huydecoper, Van Hardenbroek-van Limburg Stirum, De Marchant et d'Ansembourg, Van Tuyl van Serooskerken van Vleuten, Groeninx van Zoelen, Ruyssenaers-van Sypesteyn, the Gerritsen-Landry family, Van Heemstra and van Heeckeren van Kell and a girl from Volendam in Volendam costume. The members of the portrayed families were often connected by marriages. A large number of them held positions at the royal court, in the administration or in the world of art and culture. The members of the families he painted kept in contact with Discart or Discart with them over a period of decades. Discart made the last known portraits in 1929 in the form of pastels of the Van Lynden family in the castle Keukenhof in Lisse. In almost all cases these portraits remained in private possession.

On the occasion of King Albert I of Belgium's ascension to the throne in 1909, Discart made a large portrait that now hangs in the staircase of the Cercle Royal in Elsene in Brussels.

Compared to the portraits of other painters, Discart's work stands out due to a certain modesty and austerity. The painter shows in his portraits as well as in his orientalist paintings a sensitivity and involvement with the people he has painted. The market for portraits for the upper layers of Dutch society was predominantly in the hands of Dutch artists. Some names of foreign painters who made Dutch portraits are Sir Philip de László (Budapest, April 30, 1869 - London, November 22, 1937) and Adolf Pirsch (Gradac, Slovenia - Graz, Austria, April 28, 1929). Compared to the portraits of these artists, the portraits by Discart are somewhat more sober and more restrained in nature. In this world of orientalist paintings and European portraits, J.B. Discart with around 50 portraits therefore has its own place.

Jean Baptiste Discart died in his house on Rue de Vaugirard 197, 16th Arrd. in Paris where he spent his last years on January 1, 1940.

References

Martina Haja and Günther Wimmer, Les Orientalistes des Écoles Allemande et Autriciennes, ACR Edition, 2000, page 278-221 ISBN 2-86770-140-6 Editeur 1141
Theo P.G. Kralt, Jean Baptiste Discart (1855-1940), Oriental paintings and Dutch portraits, Van Gruting publishing house, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2019, 192 pages, illustrated f / c, ISBN 9789075879-759 Search this book on .

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