Romanticism genre scene by good listed Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman Henricus Turken (Eindhoven, December 10, 1791 - Liège, 1856).

(from Wikipedia):According to Pieter A. Scheen, it was initially the intention that Turken would enter the trade. However, that future took a different turn. He studied painting at the Academy of the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp and in the summer of 1819 he was trained in etching and drawing by Ernst Bagelaar in Eindhoven.

He focused on portraits, genre scenes, historical scenes and landscapes. The size of his paintings varies from miniatures to life-size. He worked in the style of South Netherlandish Romanticism and was attracted to the Renaissance and Neo-Classicism.

In 1820 he was appointed director of the City Academy for Drawing and Painting in Den Bosch. Turken was one of the teachers of Willem Verbeet, Thomas van Leent and Jan Hendrik van Grootvelt.

During his life his works was regularly shown during exhibitions. He exhibited in Haarlem (1825), The Hague (1819, 1925, 1827, 1839 and 1841) and Amsterdam (1828, 1830 and 1844). It was on display at least once during the Exhibition of Living Masters (Haarlem, 1825). His work is included in the collections of the Noordbrabants Museum in Den Bosch, the Museum Kempenland in Eindhoven, the Rijksprentenkabinet in Leiden and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

Since his studies, he had been friends with Antoon van Bedaff from Antwerp, who may have been director of the city academy together with him. With him he published a work in lithography in 1823 with the title Grondwaarden der Teekenkunst. When Turks and Van Bedaff failed to renew education, they resigned from the academy in 1825 and left for Brussels.

He lived in Brussels until 1843, later he left for Liège. There he died in 1856 at the age of about 64 by drowning.

Literature: Thieme/Becher, Artist lexicon, Leipzig, 1999; Biographisch Woordenboek van Noordnederlandse Graveurs 1938; online Wikipedia in Dutch.

Inscription: signed lower right.

Technique: oil on wood; splendid original period gold-plated frame.

Measurements: unframed w 19 1/5" x h 24 1/3" (49 x 62 cm ), framed w 26 1/2" " x h 31 3/4" ( 67,5 x 80,5 cm )

Condition : very good.