Egide Linnig

Egide Linnig or Egidius Linnig (25 August 1821 – 13 October 1860) was a Belgian painter, draughtsman and engraver who is best known for his marine art and occasional genre scenes. He was one of the first realist engravers in Belgium.

Life Egide Linnig was born in Antwerp as the son of Pieter-Josef Linnig (born in Aschbach, Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany) and Catharina Josephina Leys. His father was a cabinetmaker. He had two older brothers (Jan Theodoor) Jozef Linnig and Willem Linnig the Elder who both became painters and engravers.

From 1834 Linnig studied at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. Linnig was not happy with the emphasis placed on history painting by Mattheus Ignatius van Bree, the director of the academy. Linnig was from the start more attracted to the marine genre and took advantage of van Bree's death in 1839 to change his teacher to Jacques van Gingelen, a landscape painter and engraver. Linnig's classmates and contemporaries during those years included François Lamorinière, Hendrik Frans Schaefels, Lucas Victor Schaefels, Louis Van Kuyck, Karel Verlat and Henri Adolphe Schaep. During his studies at the academy, Linnig made many works from life, particularly of the Scheldt river. In 1842 Linnig decided to put an end to his academic studies. In the summer of the following year he joined the crew of fishing boats in order to study all ship maneuvers in detail. Linnig would in later years continue to take small sea trips for inspiration. One of the trips inspired him to the painting The brig 'Timor' shipwrecked off the English coast, which he exhibited at the Triennial Salon in Brussels in 1842.

Throughout the 1850s Linnig continued to make submissions to the Salons in Antwerp and Brussels.

Work

General

The subject matter of Linnig's work is mainly marines, ship portraits and coastal landscapes. He also made some genre scenes. The Scheldt in Antwerp up to its estuary was one of his main sources of inspiration. He also had an interest in depicting the Flemish coastal towns, as evidenced by his prints with coastal landscapes in Nieuwpoort and Wenduine. Linnig often signed and dated his work and occasionally drew the Masonic symbol of the square and compass alongside his signature as he was a Freemason.

Graphic work Linnig trained early on as an etcher and was one of the first to practise this art as an autonomous genre. He is regarded as one of the first realistic engravers in Belgium. His etchings, while technically finished, preserve a character of free and swift execution.