Guillaume Vogels (1836–96)
Barque à Trouville (Ship at Trouville), n.d.

Watercolor on paper
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Gift of Charles Hack and the Hearn Family Trust

Jeffery Howe
Professor Emeritus, Art History

Belgian landscape painters’ focus on the effects of light engendered local varieties of impressionism, and Wauters’s Sunset is a fine example. It exemplifies his mastery of subtle color and has all the freshness of a quick sketch executed on the spot, but with a solid composition.

Wauters received his first training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, studying with Ferdinand de Braekeleer (1792–1883), father of Henri. Wauters spent time at Barbizon and traveled extensively, from Scandinavia to Egypt.