Edouard Quitton

Another painting for sale at Van Ham on 28 January is this very nice genre piece by 19th century Belgian painter Edouard Quitton. Exhibited at the 1890 Exposition des Beaux Arts in Antwerp, it is only valued at 1,000 Euro. Smaller similar paintings sold in the past for 4,000 Euro (Antwerp, 2000) to 7,000 Euro (in Lokeren, Belgium in 2005), so either his appeal is not what it used to be, or this one is seriously underestimated. If the Belgians that bidded on the earlier pictures notice this one, I wouldn't be surprised to see this soar to 5,000 Euro or thereabouts. (UPDATE: ended nicely between the estimate and my guesses, at 2,304 Euro)

Edouard, or Edward, or even Edovard Quitton, is not the most well-known or best documented artist. His birth year is given as 1841 or 1842, his year of death is given as 1913 (e.g. at Bonham's), 1921 (Mutualart) or 1934. Born in Péruwelz, died in Laeken, perhaps from an artistic family (an ancestor seems to have worked on the altar of the church of Péruwelz).  Student at the academies of Tournai (near Péruwelz) and Antwerp, pupil of Joseph Stallaert, he then worked for most of his career in Antwerp, and specialized in three genres: small trompe-l'oeuils of dead birds hanging from a thread (popular in their day, now selling for around a 1,000 Euro), larger paintings of idealized farm life, poultry, ... like the one for sale here (selling for around 5,000 Euro), and large paintings of children in conservatories (selling for 5,000 to more than 50,000 Euro). He was one of the painters catering for the nouveau riches with enough money to buy nice pictures but not enough dare to buy more avant-garde works like the Tervuren School or later the likes of Ensor. Not quite up to the standards of the best Alfred Stevens works (who served an even richer audience), more comparable to Florent Willems and the like, the artists of the Belgian Realist School. I could find no works after ca. 1892, but he is very badly documented online anyway.