Pierre Joseph Toussaint (1822-1888) The Afternoon Tea

Pierre Joseph Toussaint (1822-1888) The Afternoon Tea Oil on canvas, signed lower right 59 x 43 cm unframed and 74 x 58 cm Beautiful carved and gilded wooden frame In the spirit of Chardin, this is a tender scene between a mother and her son. The mother elegantly wears a blue floral dress and a white apron, carefully filling a spoon with jam to add a little more to the slice of bread on the table. The young boy, dressed in a red suit, his hair tied back in a ponytail, holds his toy ball in his hand, gazing longingly at the slice of bread. The room is hushed, furnished with a sideboard, a clock hanging on the wall, and a table covered with a white tablecloth on which sits a blue ceramic jug. Pierre Joseph Toussaint was born in Brussels in 1822. At the age of fourteen, he entered the Brussels Academy, where he was trained in a traditional Flemish style until 1850. A few years later, he was invited to exhibit at important salons in Brussels, Ghent, and Antwerp. He primarily painted genre scenes.