"Still Life of Flowers in a Pale Blue Vase"
Henry Schouten (Belgium, Indonesia, 1864-1927)
Oil on canvas, signed lower right "Jos Klaus"
15 x 10-3/4 inches
Presented in an elaborate period frame
 
Henry Schouten was a Belgian painter though first and foremost, a realistic painter of animals with a smooth technique. He is best known for his depictions of farmyard scenes of animals in their environments with farmers and shepherds in the elements. In addition to his favorite subject matter, Schouten was also known to paint peasants, hunters, and dogs, as well as milkmen with carts, horses drinking from streams or frolicking in pairs. Schouten also painted numerous still lifes with flowers, fruit or game, poultry and fish, etc.
 
Born in 1864 in Indonesia, Schouten went on to study art at the Academy of Brussels from 1876-1881. His works were strongly influenced by rustic landscapes of the painter Alfred Jacques Verwee, who was also a renowned painter of animals. During Schouten’s career, he often signed his paintings with a variety of pseudonyms including Jos Klaus, Joseph Klass, V. Marinus, and J. Remis. Schouten worked in both Holland and Belgium and he died in Brussels, Belgium in 1927.
 
Schouten participated in several gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the John Davies Gallery, Morten-in-Marsh, U. K., and at the Union of Arts and in Brussels in 1882. In 1943 a posthumous retrospective of his work was held in the Hague.