King Charles Spaniels & a Maltese Terrier

Biography of Vincent de Vos ( 1829 - 1875, Belgian )

Vincent de Vos (1829-1875) was a Belgian artist who specialized in paintings of animals.
Vincent de Vos was born in Kortrijk, Belgium in 1829 to father Jan Eugene Vos, a miller, and mother Marie Anne Verhaeghe.

He studied at the Kortrijk Academy under religious artist Philip De White, and Edward Woutermaetens, also a painter of animals. At the academy, his early works won medals for composition in 1848, antique images in 1849, anatomy in 1851, and the gold metal for perspective in 1852.

In 1870 he spent time in Roman Campagna, Italy. But, eventually he settled down in his home town of Kortrijk, where he set up his studio, which most described a small zoo. He kept dogs, wolves, foxes, monkeys and even a camel. Small sized painting of oil on panel was the majority of his works.

His work was successful commercially, and was exhibited primarily in Belgium and France.

He died in Kortrijk on 5 October 1875.

Some of his paintings are in the collection of the Broelmuseum in Kortrijk. Animals, particularly monkeys and dogs, were frequent subjects of his work. He often depicted animals in circus costume. The paintings typically are small in size, and dates, titles and signatures often are hidden as box labels or in posters depicted in the work.

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