Jean François Portaels (1818-1895) - Portrait Of A Great Lady

- Oil on canvas. Original canvas. Period frame. - Jean-François Portaels is the central figure of the Belgian Orientalist school, whose technical mastery reached its zenith in his magnificent portraits. These works evoke, with unparalleled sophistication, the splendor and prestige of the Second Empire. Director of the Brussels Academy, Portaels was not only an influential teacher but also a visual chronicler of 19th-century high society, capturing on his canvases the tactile richness of silks, the brilliance of jewels, and an atmosphere of opulence oscillating between European academicism and the exoticism of North Africa. His female figures, endowed with a melancholic gaze and an almost sculptural elegance, embody this ideal of cosmopolitan and aristocratic beauty that marked an era of splendor and artistic transition. - 57 x 72 cm / 71 x 86 cm with frame