Renowned French artist Pierre Louis Joseph de Coninck (1828-1910) was born in Meteren, northern France. De Coninck was best known for painting genres and historical scenes featuring young women.
Pierre Louis Joseph de Coninck had studied art at the Ypres and Lille School of Art. He subsequently studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris in 1851 under the mentorship of the famous French history and portrait painter, Leon Cogniet. In fact, de Coninck’s art is influenced by Cogniet to a great degree.
His works became much talked about in the Parisian art scene as he exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1857. De Coninck’s works were also featured at an exhibition held at the Palais des Champs-Elysees in Paris in 1864. Louis Joseph de Coninck also spent a considerable amount of time in Italy, something that further enriched his artistic repertoire. While in Naples, he socialized with the composer Bizet. De Coninck’s numerous paintings of riveting Italian beauties stand as a fine testimony to the influence of Italian culture and aesthetics.
De Coninck was felicitated with a number of prizes including the 2nd prize at the Prix de Rome in 1855 and the 3rd prize for many respective years. He was also felicitated at the Paris Salon in 1866 and 1868. An oeuvre replete with portraiture, the model being commonly women were posed against a natural to the royal background. Belonging to an era that was looking up to modernism, De Conick’s paintings are classical, animated, serene and shift towards the Realism style.
De Coninck works have been featured in museums and galleries, across the world including Smithsonian American Art Museum, Dunkirk Museum, Metropolitan Museum, New York, Lille Museum, and Niort Museum.
