Courtens, Franz (1854-1943; Belgian)
Morning [Am morgen] (c.1878)
Oil on canvas, 75.6 x 112.0 cm
Purchased, 1881
National Gallery of Victoria (p.308.2-1)

This plein air painting was bought from the Commissioner for Belgium after being shown at the International Exhibition in Melbourne in 1880 (see also Cogen Fisherwomen {1881} Loc? [PA]).

Courtens worked in Brussels and then Antwerp (where he was appointed head of the Académie Royale de Belgique in 1903).

Refs.

AR 1881, p.53; NGV 1894, IV.25; NGV 1905, III.33 [£40] 

For the artist, see Bénézit 4, pp.75-76; AKL 21 (1999), pp.592-93; http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Courtens; and http://www.invaluable.com/artist/courtens-franz-89cwfxqzgi (with reproductions of other examples)