Lot 728 | Jacques Francois Carabain | Karden at the Moselle

CARABAIN, JACQUES FRANCOIS
1834 Amsterdam - 1933 Brussels

Title: Karden at the Moselle.
Workers building the old city wall.
Technique: Oil on wood.
Measurement: 33 x 27cm.
Notation: Signed lower right: J. Carabain.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.

Verso:
On the panel artist's label with place name, date (1874) and signature.

Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany

The Dutch-Belgian painter Jacques Francois Joseph Carabain - whose real name was Jacob Frans Jozef Carabain - was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is particularly known for his views of cities and buildings. His artistic skills were already highly valued in the 19th century: Alongside Francois Stroobant, he was one of the most successful and popular painters of city views. His work was inter-European. During all his travels through the art centres of Europe, the study of cityscapes was constantly at the forefront. This tireless passion speaks retrospectively not only of a desire to mature artistically. It also testifies to a deep longing to understand different countries and cultures, but above all their past and very personal history. Carabain knew how to read the stories of a city through its architecture and was also able to transfer this content into his paintings.

The present painting demonstrates the described abilities of the artist in an exemplary manner. He shows us numerous villagers from the small town of Karden on the Moselle. They are in the lower front part of the painting and go about their daily tasks. It appears animated and at the same time radiates with tranquillity. The snapshot of normality is framed by the town church in the background. Individual roofs peek out from behind the subway. The small town on the Moselle is protected by the deep valleys. Carabain's painting also shows a characteristic feature of his personal style: a preference for depicting medieval and baroque towns. Indeed, the snapshot appears older than it actually is. And yet the modernity of the epoch speaks from his painting style: the church in particular bears witness to a rapid ductus and impasto application of paint, which also adapts to the light conditions. The vegetation framing the town shows the same technique and resembles the application of paint in habitus.
Carabain's town views are reminiscent; they recall the originality and simplicity of the medieval and baroque periods. They testify to a longing for the past times and yet the spirit of modernity speaks from them. The revolution that was in the offing and approaching in art also already speaks from his Karden town view.