Auguste Serrure (1825–1903) - The Harpist - Oil

Auguste SERRURE
(Antwerp, 1825 – Schaerbeek, 1903)

The harpist

Oil on panel
Signed lower left
72 x 50 cm without frame
99 x 76 cm with frame
Circa 1884

Related work: large painting (97 x 130 cm) entitled The Musical Chord currently exhibited at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. The Musical Chord was acquired from the artist in 1884.  

Belgian genre and history painter, Auguste Serrure was born in Antwerp on November 2, 1825. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp with Ferdinand de Braekeleer, Gustave Wappers and Mathieu Ignace van Brée. A regular at exhibitions in Belgian Salons (Brussels and Antwerp in particular), Serrure also exhibited in London in 1874 and in Paris in 1874 and 1876. He devotes himself mainly to historicizing genre painting representing the life of wealthy society in the 18th century, in the style of Charles Baugniet and Alfred Stevens. The artist died on December 2, 1903 in Schaerbeek (Brussels).  

Museums: Paris (Mus. d’Orsay), Nantes, Brussels, Louvain, Philadelphia…