Charles Philogène Tschaggeny

Biography of Charles Philogène Tschaggeny ( 1815-1894 )

Charles Philogène Tschaggeny works at first for the Ministry of Finance while following the teaching of Eugène Verboeckhoven's. He studies beside his brother Edmond also painter and animal engraver. In 1836, he decides to dedicate himself completely to his art. In 1839, he spends several months in Antwerp and meets Nicaise de Keyser and Henri Leys with them he there will be friend.
 
In 1840, he settles down in Tervuren and realizes paintings of the horses of the governmental stud farm. In 1842, king Guillaume II of the Netherlands orders him the portrait his horse during the battle of Waterloo. Two years later, the king Leopold Ier of Belgium asks him to represent him on his horse the day of his coronation.
He is rewarded with a golden medal at the Salon of Brussels in 1845 for his painting entitled « The rest of the ploughman », acquired by king Leopold Ier. Then he participates in the exhibition of the Hague in 1847, and works in Oxford and Cambridge in 1848 and 1849. He paints « A harvest » for the British Museum, and sells to the queen « The harvesters » in 1851. The same year, he gains the Leopold's Order, and four years later he obtains an honourable mention in the World Fair of Paris. Very appreciated by the criticism and by the public, he receives in particular an enthusiastic welcome in the Three-year Show of Antwerp in 1861 with « The Mail coach of the Ardennes » (bought in 1862 by the royal museum of Brussels). The big popularity of this work is attested by its reproduction in engraving and by the significant number of handwritten authorizations drafted by Tschaggeny, from 1867, for the attention of the persons avid to study the work to the museum or to realize its copies.
In 1865, he becomes professor at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, and becomes honorary member in 1885. King Don Fernando buys him a work in 1866, and he is rewarded with a medal in Vienna in 1873. The museum of Melbourne (Australia) buys him a picture in 1875.

Painter of scenes of genre and wild animals, Charles Philogène Tschaggeny also painted marine, among which some with P.J. Clays. He also painted with his brother Edmond, and sometimes with J.B. Madou. But Tschaggeny is especially known for his horses paintings. The works of Tschaggeny are always very faithful to the reality. Thanks to his fabulous technique and his meticulous retranscription of animals and landscapes, Tschaggeny’s paintings possess a real documentary value, which his customers looked for and appreciated quite particularly. Tschaggeny was also an etcher.Charles Philogène Tschaggeny was a pupil of E. Verboeckhoven and N. De Kayser at the Antwerp Academy, as well as Wappers and H. Leys (1839). After having worked for a short period at the Ministry of Finance, he decided to devote himself entirely to his art from 1836. He worked in Tervuren around 1840, then in London, Oxford and Cambridge in 1848-1849. He exhibited in Belgium, England and in France, at various exhibitions including the Universal Exhibitions. He was awarded with medals in Brussels in 1845 and nominated Knight of the Order of Leopold in 1851. Royalty ordered works of art from him, particularly Willem II (1842) and Leopold the first (1844). The critics and the public adored him, and he received a very warm welcome at the Triennial Salon at Anvers in 1861 with his work La Malle-poste des Ardennes (Brussels, royal museums of Fine Arts of Belgium). Charles Tschaggeny was nominated a member of the Royal Academy in 1865.
Tschaggeny painted numerous seascapes and did etchings, but he was known above all for his paintings of horses, and became a specialist in this domain. H