Ships near the harbour - Charles-Louis Verboeckhoven (1802-1889)

Oil on panel
Signed lower right

Charles-Louis Verboeckhoven was a Belgian marine painter. His brother was the animal painter, Eugène Verboeckhoven. In 1815 he moved to Ghent, where he developed an interest in marine painting and came under the influence of Frans Balthasar Solvyns. After 1842, he used brighter colors and his style became more realistic. Very often, the foreground figures were provided by his brother, who reportedly performed the same service for several well-known landscape painters. Many of his works are set in small harbors along the Scheldt, which have since disappeared and cannot be identified with any certainty.