Lot 49
£4,788
Auction: Islamic Art | Lots 1 to 66 | 12 June at 10am
oil on panel, signed centre right: J. Portaels, depicting a young Turkish lady
62cm x 46.5cm (24 3/8in x 18 3/8in)
Formerly in the collection of a senior diplomat, acquired from Ader-Tajan, Paris, in 1988.
Note:
Jean-Francois Portaels was a prominent 19th Century Belgian artist and is regarded as the founder of the Belgian Orientalist school. He travelled extensively in the Middle-East and frequently portrayed Oriental Women.
The critic Edmond Louis de Taeye noted, ‘Portaels is and will remain the painter of wordly elegance and feminine grace….His portraits always have great allure…..In the evolution of art in general, J. F. Portaels, as the head of a school [first of the Ghent Academy and later of the Brussels Academy], can immediately be placed side by side with Francois Navez.’
This painting will be included in the artist’s forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Antoinette De Laet.