J. Coomans (1813-1889), Last Days of Happiness in Pompeii, 1863

A painting depicting a scene of family life in an idealised Pompeian interior. The walls are decorated with Fourth Style paintings. In the centre, a panel depicting a Venus Anadyomene against a cinnabar-red background, flanked on either side by fantastical aedicules and then by allegorical figures (Music and Dance) against a pale yellow background. In the centre, a couple lie half-reclined in each other’s arms, gazing at one another. To their left, a servant girl holds a bowl of fruit. In the foreground, three young children are playing knucklebones, a very popular ancient pastime often depicted in Roman art. On the left, a young boy brandishes an imposing theatre mask, causing a small dog to bark.

This work is a perfect example of mid-19th-century Neo-Greek painting. Strongly influenced by the archaeological discoveries unearthed at Pompeii and Herculaneum, Coomans specialised in depicting genre scenes set in antiquity. Far removed from grand heroic or mythological narratives (history painting), the artist presents here an intimate scene, celebrating Roman otium (leisure).

Biography :
Pierre-Olivier-Joseph Coomans (1813–1889) was a Belgian genre and history painter who trained under Nicaise de Keyser and Baron Wappers at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. In 1843, Queen Louise-Marie d’Orléans sent him to Algeria to follow the French army in Kabylie. There he met the military painter Horace Vernet. His three stays in Algeria (1843, 1844, and 1845) introduced Orientalism into his work. He was awarded a vermeil medal at the 1848 Brussels Salon for Dernière charge d’Attila à la bataille de Châlons-sur-Marne.
In 1855, he settled in the vicinity of Naples, and the Roman frescoes of Pompeii led him to gradually abandon Orientalism in favor of romantic Neapolitan scenes, and then a new genre known as the “Pompeian style.”
In 1860, he settled in Paris and began to move toward academic classicism. From October 1888 to June 1889, he stayed in Philadelphia and New York, where he painted mainly portraits.

Bibliography :
– J. Girard de Rialle, À travers le Salon de 1863, Paris, 1863, pp.63-64 ;
– Explication des ouvrages de peinture […] exposés au palais des Champs-Élysées le 1er Mai 1863, Paris, 1863, p. 57, no. 452.