Disillusion

Edouard Jean Conrad Hamman (1819-1888) was a Belgian painter and engraver born in Ostend. He was mostly famous as a painter of historic events, genre scenes, and portraits of famous scholars and nobility. He studied in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp before moving to Paris to complete his studies at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, where he met Thomas Couture. He first exhibited at the Ghent Salon of 1838, but it was his participation to the Brussels Salon in 1842 that first brought him to the notice of the Belgian public. He then travelled to Italy to make his Grand Tour to discover the great Italian masters he admired.

His painting style was very much influenced by the style of Louis Gallait. He did portraits of many famous artistic and historic characters such as Charles Quint, Dante, Mozart, Vesalius, and Montaigne.

In 1851 he painted Disillusion, an intimate scene full of nostalgia and melancholy depicting a young woman in a Bohemian style, crying on a cliff. She seems to be waiting for someone; maybe she is hoping to see the mast of a ship on the sea announcing the return of her lover? We can see ivy and thistle in the foreground; apart from being a part of this desolated landscape, it may have a symbolic value as ivy represents loyalty and thistle represents pain. A castle in ruins and the intense orange of the sunset emphasize the romanticism of the scene. 

The red dress and the posture of the lady sitting on the rocks looking over the sea is astonishingly similar to a painting by Ary Scheffer entitled Medora, inspired by a poem by Byron, depicting the young Medora desperately awaiting the return of Conrad by the ocean. Maybe this highly narrative painting was the source of inspiration of Hamman.

- Tony Goupil

P.S. A Grand Tour was a lovely concept that we all would like to do! Here's an episode from Goethe's with one of his famous portraits by Tischbein and the story of their friendship.