Augustus Koopman

AUGUSTUS KOOPMAN (Wisconsin, 1869-1914).
"The Curious Onlookers - Returning Home after Baptism," ca. 1910.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
This painting was exhibited at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Français in Paris in 1910. In the catalog, this painting was listed as number 1067.
Measurements: 200 x 200 cm; 230 x 230 cm (frame).

Under the title "The curious spectators", the work presents a scene of great costumbrista load where a group of three women, attired with the regional dress, observes with eloquence the step of a mother after the baptism of her son. The technical workmanship of the piece stands out, characterized by vibrant brushstrokes that build an urban environment of unmistakable Venetian atmosphere, discernible through its canals, bridges and stony passages. This canvas belongs to the American artist's mature period, conceived during his decisive European formative period prior to the emergence of the modernist avant-garde.

Augustus Koopman was an American painter and illustrator trained at the Académie Julian in Paris under such masters as Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens, which marked his French-influenced academic style; he specialized in elegant portraits-especially female-and genre scenes of refined atmosphere, characterized by soft lighting, attention to detail in fabrics and textures, and careful composition, being part of the generation of American artists who traveled to Europe in the late 19th century to perfect their training before the rise of modernism. Koopman also won a bronze and a silver medal for his decorations at the Paris Exposition Universelle (1900) and another bronze medal at Buffalo (1901).