Balthasar Paul Ommeganck

Balthasar Paul Ommeganck (sometimes also: Paul Balthasar Ommeganck) (1755–1826) was a Flemish painter of landscapes and animals. Through his work and his role as a teacher he gave an important impetus to the revitalization of landscape painting in the Low Countries.

He was born in Antwerp in 1755 as the fourth child of Paulus Ommeganck and Barbara Laenen. He was registered in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a pupil of the respected painter Hendricus Josephus Antonissen from 1767. At the same time he also attended classes at the Antwerp Academy where he obtained a second prize for drawing after the Antique in March 1771. He specialized in landscapes and the rendering of the coat of animals in particular of sheep.

On 26 June 1781 he married Petronilla Isabella Maria Jacoba Parrin in Antwerp. They had two sons and seven daughters, one of which was the animal painter Johanna Maria Ommeganck.

He was one of the founders in 1788 of a society of artists known as the Genootschap ter aanmoediging der Schoone Kunsten ("Society for the encouragement of the fine arts'), known under its short form as the Konstmaatschappij (the 'Art Society'). Other founders included Hendrik Frans de Cort, Pieter Faes, Miss Herry, Jan Josef Horemans the Younger, Ferdinand Verhoeven, Hendrik Aarnout Myin, Frans Balthasar Solvyns, Mattheus Ignatius van Bree, Maria Jacoba Ommeganck, Marten Waefelaerts and many others. The society's goal was to provide opportunities for the promotion and appreciation of the artworks of its various members in an informal setting. The first exhibition of the society was held in Antwerp in 1789. Ommeganck contributed 4 works to this first exhibition.

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