Study Of A Baker, Attributed To Louis Delbeke, 1821–1891

Louis Delbeke (Louis Auguste Corneille Delbeke, 1821–1891) was a Belgian painter. Born in Poperinge in 1821 and died in Schaerbeek in 1891, he studied at the academies in Ypres, Brussels, and Antwerp. He then spent time studying in Italy from 1851 to 1854. He distinguished himself in history painting, genre scenes, and works inspired by Symbolism, mysticism, and decorative art. In particular, he contributed to the large-scale painted decorations for the Ypres Cloth Hall as well as to the Masonic temple of the Amis philanthropes in Brussels. The son of a shoemaker from Ypres, and having himself begun as a shoemaker’s apprentice at the age of 10, Delbeke was a true product of the 19th-century working class. This explains his particular affinity for scenes of everyday life and figures engaged in manual labour (such as this baker, workers, or artisans), whom he painted with a realism imbued with dignity.
His works are held, among other places, at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the Ypres Museum, and the Tournai Museum of Fine Arts.
The figure (the baker, the loaves of bread, the apron, and the pants) is painted in oil (or with a highly opaque gouache or oil tempera), as evidenced by the opaque brushstrokes, the textural relief (light impasto visible on the clothing and the bread), and the characteristic sheen of oil paint.
Creases and a few small missing areas at the corners