HENRI VAN SEBEN (Brussels 1825 – Ixelles 1913)
A Milkmaid on Ice Skates by a Sledge
signed H.V. Seben and dated Bruxelles 1865 in the lower left
oil on panel
8 9/16 x 6 1/16 inches (21.7 x 15.4 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Caroline Herriman Polhemus, by 1906 who bequeathed it to
The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn, New York, 1906, now called the Brooklyn Museum, from whom deaccessioned in 2023
LITERATURE
William H. Goodyear & A. D. Savage, “H. van Seben” in Catalogue of Paintings: Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1910, no. 497, p. 84
V. Coomans – Cardon de Lichtbuer, ed., “Henri van Seben” in Le Dictionnaire des Peintres Belges, volume L-2, La Renaissance de Livers, 1995, p. 1120
During the nineteenth century the milkmaid was generally regarded as “robust, practical, and pretty,… the symbol of wholesomeness and romantic pastoral innocence”, and never deterred by inclement weather.[1] This is exactly the image Henri van Seben presents to the viewer. Also as depicted, over the winter months in the Low Countries frozen waterways were used to transport goods by sled which led to these ice-covered roads being filled with skaters delivering their goods to the next buyer. It is hardly surprising that this work would have appealed to Caroline Herriman Polhemus who bequeathed it to The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (now the Brooklyn Museum) in 1906. Part of a valuable collection of paintings and sculpture that she gave to the museum, she also established the Polhemus Fund for future acquisitions.[2]
Besides a passion for art she was very concerned with the plight of the poor. In 1897, in memory of her husband Henry Ditmas Polhemus, she financed for $490,000 the building of the Polhemus Memorial Clinic in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. One of the first skyscraper hospitals to be built, it was devoted to the “relief of the poor along the waterfront”. Upon completion Mrs. Polhemus gave an additional endowment of $800,000.[3] Her will of 1906 included further bequests to the Brooklyn Children’s Aid Society, $25,000; Seaside Home, $10,000; Brooklyn Orphan Asylum, $10,000; Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital, $10,000; House of St. Giles the Cripple, $10,000; Home for Aged Colored People, $10,000; and Dr. Trudeau’s Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium, $10,000[4], in what amounts to an astonishing range of charitable concerns. A beauty herself, it is not surprising that Caroline Polhemus would have been drawn to the charms of Van Seben’s little milkmaid. But perhaps what truly intrigued her was the reality of the lifestyle that lay beneath.
Henri van Seben was an orphan who fortuitously lived in The Hague and was able to take courses at the Academy of Fine Arts there from 1839 – 1850, notably with Hubertus van Hove. He specialized in landscape, portraits and genre in oils, watercolor, and prints. He particularly excelled in winter views of Belgium and Holland often featuring ice skaters. He exhibited extensively in The Hague, Antwerp, Brussels, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Leuven and Liège. Van Seben was awarded a gold medal at the Brussels Salon of 1881. The artist’s Omgeving van Den Haag (Hague Landscape) is in the Royal Museum of Arts of Belgium, Brussels, with other works acquired by the museums of Antwerp, Ixelles, Ghent, and Mons.
[1] Julia Nurse, “Milkmaids and the image of purity” on welcomecollection.org., May 4, 2023.
[2] The Brooklyn Museum Quarterly, The Brooklyn Museum of Arts & Sciences, Brooklyn, N.Y., March 1914 – January 1915, p. 313.
[3] Henry Isham Hazelton, The Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, Counties of Nassau and Suffolk, Long Island, New York 1609 – 1924, volume III, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., New York, 1925, p. 1456.
[4] “Probate Matters”, in United States Investor, volume 18, issue 2, Boston, New York, & Washington, November 17, 1906, p. 1902.