Kinson

Abstract

Like the other Bruges artists of the neoclassical period who successfully built a career in Paris and elsewhere, François Kinsoen or 'Kinson', as he signed in France, was a discreet figure who for a long time lived between the folds of the Belgian and French art history has remained hidden. François Kinsoen built a brilliant career as a polished court and society portraitist of, among others, the French imperial family and the royal Bourbon dynasty, of old and new aristocrats, burghers and industrious pre-capitalists, army officers and politicians, and even of artists and singers. When portrait painting, and certainly Kinsoen's sublimating and refined way of working, was seen by critics as outdated and unnatural in the mid-19th century, Kinsoen's impressive portraits became the object of general contempt. This once celebrated artist thus became an insignificant footnote in European art history. Reluctantly today, a renewed interest in his work is emerging. For several decades, his portraits have regularly turned up at exhibitions, on the international art market and in auction houses. The hammer price for many of his works is going crescendo. A rehabilitation of Kinsoen and his portraiture is urgently needed. This requires a rediscovery of his fascinating career, together with an unbiased interest in his typical working method, a new appreciation of the Kinsoen ideal of beauty and a lasting (re)appraisal of his enormous production.