Jean-Baptiste Maes-Canini (1794 - 1856) , known as Maes-Canini - Roman woman

A pupil at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Jean-Baptiste-Louis Maes showed precocious talent[1]. He won prizes in the competitions he took part in at the art schools in Mechelen (1810), Ghent (1817), Brussels (1818), Antwerp and Amsterdam (1819). Elected a member of the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Ghent in 1820, he was granted an annual pension by his home town for two years to continue his training abroad.
When he entered Rome, Jean-Baptiste-Louis Maes was an established artist who had already distinguished himself in various genres. He received new commissions from his home town, including a large altarpiece: The Holy Family with Saint Anne and Saint Joachim for the church of Saint-Michel (in situ).
These signs of interest in his painting enthused the painter, who still aspired to be a history painter: "I have just learned with great satisfaction that the church of St. Michel [in Ghent] has just commissioned me to paint a picture for the chapel of St. Anne. "2] On 30 June 1824, he wrote to Liévin De Bast, the secretary of the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Ghent, "I am now happy to find the opportunity to devote myself entirely to the historical genre, and I shall endeavour to do so with honour to the general expectation of the public and my fellow-citizens: here I am content and happy, always finding myself in the midst of masterpieces.

Stimulated by his colleagues and by the special atmosphere of the Eternal City, he turned more and more to the then fashionable genre: the Italian scene. In a letter to Lièvin de Bast dated 30 June 1824, he wrote: "I have the honour of announcing to you that I have just sent three paintings at the beginning of this month, representing a St Sebastian, an old woman in prayer, and the third the Pifferari in front of a Madonna: at the beginning of next month I will send another, the subject of which is a young and beautiful Vignerola with an old man, a group of natural size". These paintings were included in the Ghent Salon of 1824.
In 1827, in Rome, he married Anna Maria, daughter of the engraver Bartolomeo Canini. From then on, he would add his wife's name to his own.
With the exception of a few religious paintings, such as The Good Samaritan of 1825 (fig. 2), which he sent to Belgium, Maes-Canini henceforth devoted himself solely to Italian scenes.

Some of his works are reminiscent, in a gentle way, of the paintings by Léopold Robert (La-Chaux-de-Fonds 1794 - Venice 1835) (fig. 7), with whom he was undoubtedly acquainted, as Denis Coekelberghs suggests.4

Under his brushes, Roman women usually appear in three-quarter view, sometimes in bust form (fig. 3). He sometimes depicted them undressed (fig. 6), usually in their traditional, brightly-coloured costumes. They are grooming themselves, preparing for the annual carnival on the Corso (figs. 5 & 8), filling a lamp with oil (fig. 4) and so on. Sometimes they appear alone, sometimes accompanied by an older maid, which brings out the freshness and delicacy of their youth. Through the tight framing of the compositions around the figures and the intensity of the chiaroscuro, some of Maes-Canini's paintings offer a suave variation on the Roman neo-Caravaggio of the second quarter of the 19th century (fig. 8).

Some of his paintings were successful. Such is the case of The Young Roman Woman at Prayer. The work analysed here is one of several variants of the same composition depicting a young Roman woman, in Frascati costume, praying in a church before a pious image. The image is not depicted in the paintings, but is subtly suggested, notably by the copper lamp hanging in front of the altars, as is the case with many examples in Rome.

The artist took two approaches to the subject. The first shows the young woman alone, her hands clasped and her elbows resting on an altar beside a bouquet of flowers (figs. 9, 12 & 13). One example bears the date 1845.
The second variant of the subject is known to us from several paintings. This time, the young Roman woman is holding a sleeping child in swaddling clothes (figs. 10 & 11). One of them also bears the date 1845.


It should be noted that Maes-Canini exhibited a Young Roman Woman at Prayer at the Brussels Salon of 1833 and that a copy of the painting Young Roman Woman at Prayer with a Bouquet of Flowers, erroneously signed Jean Portaels (Vilvorde 1818 - Brussels 1895), exists in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi (inv. 574). This copy is further proof of the success of Maes-Canini's painting.

It is a fine example of the painting of Jean-Baptiste-Louis Maes-Canini. He was one of Belgium's leading exponents of Italian-style genre scenes in the second quarter of the 19th century, painted in the romantic, sentimental, poetic and idealistic style typical of the northern schools.

Alain Jacobs.



Illustrations :
Fig. 2 J.-B.-L. Maes-Canini, The Good Samaritan, Rome 1825, oil on canvas, 251 w 200 cm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. SK-A-1078.

Fig. 3 J.-B.-L. Maes-Canini, Portrait of a Young Italian Girl, Rome 1828, 47 x 37 cm, Ghent, Bijlokemuseum, inv. A65.02.029.

Fig. 4 J.B.L. Maes-Canini, Young Italian Woman with Oil Lamp, 1835, oil on canvas. Current location unknown.

Fig. 5: J.B.L. Maes-Canini, Young Italian girl preparing for Carnival, 1838, oil on canvas, present location unknown.

fig. 6. J.B.L. Maes-Canini, Jeune Italienne à sa toilette, 1839, oil on canvas, 99 x 74.5 cm. Present location unknown.

fig. 7. J.B.L. Maes-Canini, Young Italian Woman Preparing for Carnival, 1854, oil on canvas, 74.6 x 99 cm. Current location unknown.

Fig. 8 J.B.L. Maes-Canini, Young Italian Girl Preparing for Carnival, 1855, oil on canvas, 100x200cm. Current location unknown.

fig. 9: J.B.L. Maes-Canini, Young Italian Girl Pirating, 1845, oil on canvas, 30 x 23.8 cm. Present location unknown.

Fig. 10: J.B.L. Maes-Canini, Young Italian Woman at Prayer, Holding a Child, 1837, oil on canvas, 99 x 74 cm. Berlin, Museum Berggruen, Alte und Neue Nationalgalerie

fig. 11: J.B.L. Maes-Canini, Young Italian Woman at Prayer, Holding a Sick Child, 1845, oil on canvas, 30 x 23.8 cm. Current location unknown.

fig. 12: J.B.L. Maes-Canini, Young Italian Woman Pirating, n.d. (?), oil on canvas, 90 x 72 cm. Present location unknown.

fig. 13 J.B.L. Maes-Canini, Young Italian Girl Pirating, n.d., oil on canvas, 79 x 64 cm. Present location unknown.


[1] For more on J.B.L. Maes-Canini, see L. De Bast,

[2] Annales du Salon de Gand et de l'école moderne des Pays-Bas, Ghent, P.F. De Goesin-Verhaeghe, 1823, pp. 135-136; D. Coekelber- ghs, Les peintres belges à Rome de 1700 à 1830, Bruxelles-Rome, Institut historique belge de Rome, III, 1976, pp. 404-406.

[3] Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. RP-D-2017-888.