Anna Boch Biography

Anna-Rosalie Boch (1848-1936), known as Anna, was a Belgian painter, art collector, and the only female member of the artistic group, Les XX.

Boch's family was involved in art in different ways. Her father, Frédéric Victor Boch, was a successful manufacturer of porcelain; her brother, Eugène Boch, was a painter, and her cousin, Octave Maus, was an art critic.

Boch participated in the Neo-Impressionist movement. Her early works used a Pointillist technique, but she is best known for her Impressionist style, which she adopted for most of her career. A pupil of Isidore Verheyden, she was influenced by Théo van Rysselberghe, whom she met in the artistic group, Les XX.

Boch actively collected works of art by her contemporaries. She assembled a major collection of Post-Impressionist paintings, which included works by Paul Gauguin, Paul Signac, James Ensor, and Vincent van Gogh. She promoted many young artists, including Van Gogh, whom she admired for his talent and who was a friend of her brother Eugène Boch. La Vigne Rouge (The Red Vineyard), purchased by Anna Boch, is believed to be the only painting Van Gogh sold during his lifetime. The Anna Boch collection was sold after her death. In her will, she donated the money to pay for the retirement of poor artist friends.

140 of her own paintings were left to her godchild, Ida van Haelewijn, the daughter of her gardener. Many of these paintings show Ida van Haelewijn as a little girl in the garden. In 1968, these 140 paintings were purchased by her great-nephew Luitwin von Boch, the CEO of Villeroy & Boch Ceramics. The paintings remained in the house of Ida van Haelewijn until her death in 1992. 

In 2025, some of Boch's paintings were included in the 'Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller's Neo-Impressionists' exhibition at the National Gallery, London.