Reflections, Bruges
Ossip L. Linde excelled in nearly every genre, painting portraits, nudes, seascapes, copies of Old Masters, and he even produced lithographs and sculpture. But he is best-known for his landscape paintings of Venice, Bruges, and Connecticut. Growing up in the small Russian village of Rostov-on-Don where there was no art teacher, he learned the rudiments of painting on his own. By age thirteen he was hired as a portrait painter and designer. Shortly after Linde’s father died, the family left Russia for Chicago, arriving in 1892. Once there he enrolled in the School of the Art Institute and was well-equipped to compete with the other students. In fact, he was so talented that he was allowed to attend Life Drawing and Sculpture classes right away, a privilege usually reserved for more advanced students. His first attempt at sculpture was so successful that it was exhibited publicly. After completing several classes, his teachers encouraged him to travel to Europe to advance himself. He resided there from 1903-1911, at first in Paris at the Académie Julian as pupil of M. Jean Paul Laurens (1838-1921), one of the last traditional history painters in Europe alongside Jean-Léon Gérôme.
Linde took the Parisian art scene by storm. From 1904 -1911 his canvases were exhibited regularly in each recurring Paris Salon. He won a Gold Medal in the 1910 Paris Salon. Following a brief study period at the Munich Academy of Art, he returned to the United States in 1911. For the rest of his life he lived in Westport, Connecticut, though he continued to visit Europe and even California.
Reflections, Bruges represents Linde’s orchestration of color and place, in this instance the charming capital of West Flanders in northwest Belgium. Bruges likely attracted Linde for its canals, cobbled streets, and medieval buildings. He might have painted the scene during his first sojourn in Europe, or after 1911, when he traveled there occasionally.
The brilliance of Linde’s painting is the inclusion of the figures in the immediate foreground as though they really belonged there and were part of the environment. Many artists paint a masterful landscape and add figures as accoutrements or afterthoughts. Linde’s figures, however, seamlessly blend into the scenery, yet also hold an important sense of presence. The landscape would be incomplete without them, yet in no respect do the figures interfere with the beauty of the trees, the buildings, and in this case the river and canals. Though Reflections, Bruges depicts a distinct topographic locality, the painting has a universal appeal.
Aside from his keen ability to unify humanity with nature, Linde was an excellent colorist. One Parisian critic called him the "Master of Color." His luxurious color sense has been attributed to a few influences, his Russian origin and his fascination with the great Venetian Renaissance colorists Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto. Those who knew him commented on his lively demeanor, and it was said that his personality was as vivid as the palette of his paintings!
