Antique European Oil on Canvas After Eugene Von Blaas. Recreation of "The Stolen Kiss" (1863) painting in precise colors and dimensions. Signed "S. Kunze" lower right. Label on back with prior owner information. 

Overall: 27 X 19 in. 

Sight: 24 3/4 X 16 1/2 in. 

#2681 . 

Eugene de Blaas, also known as Eugene von Blaas or Eugenio Blaas, was born on July 24th, 1843 in Albano, a town near Rome. His father was the famous Austrian painter Karl von Blaas, and instructed him from an early age. The family moved in the 1850s when Karl became a professor at the Academy of Venice, and the city became a common source of inspiration for the young Eugene. By the 1960s he had branched out into portraiture and religious paintings, and his richly colored and theatrical period images of Venetian life stood out against the more common etchings and pastels of courtyards, balconies, and canals that most of his contemporaries were making. His work is now acknowledged as a pivotal influence on the growth of Academic Neo-Classicism, and when he died on February 10th, 1931 he had seen his work displayed at the Royal Academy of London, The British Fine Art Society, and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. His playful emotional scenes of young love and beautiful peasant girls have spawned many imitations over the centuries, as studies of form and examples of idealized, timeless experiences for the Italian working class.