The Artist's Canvas . 24 August 2025 . The Mine Crachet-Picquery in Frameries . Borinage . Eugène Boch
The Mine Crachet-Picquery in Frameries, Borinage
Eugène Boch
The dark smoke billowing from tall chimneys betrays the violence done at the Crachet-Picquery mine in Frameries, in the Borinage region of Belgium, where miners risked their lives extracting coal hundreds of metres underground. Established in the late eighteenth century, the mine belonged to La Compagnie des Charbonnages Belges.01 As evidenced in this painting, this region was characterized by the coal industry: more factory chimneys and a coal heap dot the horizon. Despite the harsh, perilous work inside the mines, the painting presents a serene scene with soft tones and a balanced composition. Through the strong horizontal orientation and the cropping of the canvas on either side, the mine in this painting almost blends into the landscape, while the miners and their hardships remain unseen.
Boch and Van Gogh
Created around 1888–90, this scene was painted by Eugène Boch (1855–1941), who was born in Saint-Vaast in Belgium. While he learned to paint in Belgium and the Netherlands, he moved to Paris in 1879. There, he studied under Léon Bonnat (1833–1922) for a few years before apprenticing with Fernand Cormon (1845–1924), at the same time as other artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) and Emile Bernard (1868–1941).02 Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) also came to study at Cormon’s atelier in 1886, but there is no evidence that the two were acquainted then. They may have met at the gatherings of the Peintres du Petit Boulevard, although Boch was very absorbed in his work during that period and had limited social interactions.03 What is certain is that Boch and Van Gogh crossed paths two years later when the American painter Dodge MacKnight (1860–1950), who was then working with Boch in the small Provencal town of Fontvieille in 1888, took him to nearby Arles to visit Van Gogh. MacKnight unquestionably knew Van Gogh through Cormon’s atelier, and he had described him to Boch as ‘a remarkable character (eccentric), but a good fellow’.04 Van Gogh was immediately drawn to the Belgian: ‘He’s a lad whose outward appearance I like very much. Face like the blade of a razor, green eyes, and distinction with all that.’05 They had extensive discussions about the new directions in art and quickly became friends.06 When MacKnight set off, leaving Boch behind with Van Gogh, Van Gogh did not mind; he thought MacKnight was a slacker and that at least the Belgian painter ‘knows what he wants'.
It was Van Gogh who advised Boch to paint miners in the Borinage area of his own homeland.08 Boch took this to heart and after leaving Arles travelled to the Borinage, working there between 1888 and 1891. Only a few paintings from this period are still known, including Coal Mine.
