Ferdinand Toussaint (1873-1956) - Portrait Of An Elegant Flemish Woman

The painter's virtuosity has made this work both an evocation of traditional Flemish life and the portrait of a woman of rare magnificence, whose beauty, combined with chromatic and textural choices, captivates the observer. In the texture of her dress and colors, she is reminiscent of the Portrait of Brigida Spinola Doria, painted in 1606 by Peter Paul Rubens and now in the National Gallery in Washington.
As an observer, we lose ourselves in the pure gaze of this woman.
The different shots also play on style. The realistic treatment of the woman contrasts sharply with the late Impressionist style of the background, accentuating the difference between the two scenes.
Fernand Toussaint was an emblematic painter of the Belgian Belle Époque, whose work combines elegance, light and refinement. He studied at the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where he was trained by the influential academic painter Jean-François Portaels.
Early on, he was part of an artistic tradition that blended bourgeois and belle époque realism; in fact, according to Mario Vellani Marchi, he is the "undisputed master of grace and charm in women"

Dimensions with frame: 147cm x 106cm
Dimensions without frame: 110.5 x 71.5 cm