A delightful genre painting of two Italian women next to a Vineyard by Karel Frans Philippeau. The scene depicts a women carrying a basket of wine grapes talking to a mother holding a sleeping baby.

Karel Frans Philippeau was born in Amsterdam on 31 August 1825 to Franciscus Rolandus Philippeau and Maria Carolina Luraschi. Little is known about his early life but he studied at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in Amsterdam before enrolling at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. He began exhibiting in Amsterdam with genre works from 1848 and at the Hague from 1849 before travelling to Italy in 1850. There he spent time in Rome, Venice and then Florence where he studied the old masters.

Philippeau was captivated by the Italian way of life and began painting scenes of rural families who often spent their time outside engaged in communal activities. Whilst on his travels, he continued to send paintings to be exhibited at the Hague. After returning to Amsterdam in 1855, he continued working as an artist and enjoyed considerable success, becoming a member of the Dutch artist’s society ‘Arti et Amicitiae’.

He later moved to Princenhage in the North Brabant province of the south Netherlands and on 2 May 1867, he married Hariette Antoinette Marie Therese England in Roermond. In addition to exhibiting in his home country, he also exhibited in England at the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts in 1865 and 1867, Leeds in 1868, Liverpool in 1869 and the British Institution in 1873 as well as at other London galleries. He also taught art to a number of students including Willem Witsen, Johannes Frederik Hulk junior, Betsy Repelius and Cato van Hoorn.
Philippeau died in Princenhage on 10 April, 1897.

His works are held by a number of public art collections including the Glasgow Museum, Manchester Art Gallery and the Mint Museum in the US.

© Benton Fine Art