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Hans Laagland

Hans Laagland, My Mother
Oil on wood, 1980

“It does not matter what the artist paints, but how he paints it,” proclaims the painter Hans Laagland. “That is why Rubens is a genius while Picasso’s work is passable.” Laagland, a Fleming himself, is one of the scant few artists in our day who paint in the grand style of the Flemish baroque master. He was born in Belgium’s Dutch province in 1965 and took up the brush and easel when ten years old. The young boy quickly developed a fascination with Rubens, considering and absorbing his works in the neighbouring city of Antwerp. Laagland’s emphasis is on traditional craftsmanship, painting in oils on wood panel, investigating and recreating the Old-Dutch lead white used by Rembrandt and the vermilion of Rubens. With a particularly capable hand at portraits, his work can be seen everywhere from the Norbertine abbey at Postel to the Belgian parliament in Brussels.

“It has been downhill ever since Rubens,” the painter says. Rembrandt — “Rubens’s disabled cousin” according to Laagland — was the last great painter; “What comes after him no longer has any significance.” Those versed in the Netherlandic tongue can read Mr. Laagland expounding upon his artistic ideas in De Kunstverduistering (“The Eclipse of Art”), his extended essay on art and painting now published as a book by KEI Zutphen.

Hans Laagland, Figures with Game and Fruit
Oil on wood, 47½ in. x 102⅓ in.
1993

Hans Laagland, Still Life with Melon
Oil on wood, 23½ in. x 35½ in.
1995

Hans Laagland, My Parents
Oil on wood, 29½ in. x 39⅓ in.
1997

Hans Laagland, Large Art Deco Still Life
Oil on oak, 35½ in. x 30¾ in.
2001

Hans Laagland, View of the Studio (self portrait, detail)
Oil on oak, 63 in. x 102⅓ in.
2000

Elsewhere: Laagland Agents

Published at 1:14 pm on Friday 5 March 2010. Categories: Art Featured Tags: , , , .
Comments

An exciting find, Mr. Cusack. Bravo.
On the other hand the works you show are too self consciously Rubenesque.
Mijnheer Laagland should have the courage of his (correct) conviction that it is indeed not what you paint but how you paint it.
The still life is far and away the best of the works you reproduce.
That it is the latest of your series gives cause for real hope that this still relatively young man will live up to and even surpass the promise richly displayed here.

— L Gaylord Clark 7 Mar 2010 4:00 am

People still paint like this?! Art is not lost!

— K Dontoh 7 Mar 2010 4:20 pm
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