Herman Richir (1866-1942).

Old frame, wood and gilded stucco (usual wear). frame dimensions: 35 x 39 cm.
Dimensions of the painting: 18.5 x 24 cm. Signed lower right. Located and dated on the back of the painting.
Herman Richir, born in 1866 in Ixelles and died in 1942, is a Belgian painter of allegorical and mythological scenes, nudes, portraits and landscapes Less known for his still lifes and as a landscape painter, Richir nonetheless painted, in these very different genres, masterful canvases. Herman Richir entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode and received the support of Charles Hermans, in particular, who provided him with valuable advice. From 1884 to 1889, he continued his training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels under the direction of Jean-François Portaels. Already a laureate of the academy in 1885, Richir ranked second in the Prix de Rome the following year behind Constant Montald. In 1889, at the triennial salon in Ghent, he obtained a gold medal for his group The Ward Meulenbergh family, which immediately placed him among the masters of portraiture.
His presence was noticed at the Paris Salons in 1889 and 1892, as well as at the Brussels International Exhibition of 1897.
First appointed professor of the drawing course from nature at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in 1900, Herman Richir then became a painting teacher there from 1905 to 1927. Academic teaching had a great influence on many of his students, including two eminent members of the Nervia group, Louis Buisseret and Léon Navez.
While continuing to teach, he sporadically exercised the functions of director within the same institution from 1906 to 1927 (1906-1907, 1910-1911, 1915-1919 [replacing Victor Horta], 1925-1927). He definitively left his post as director in 1927, and was replaced by Victor Horta.
Works in many museums, including those of Brussels, Antwerp, Namur, Genk, Lille, Barcelona, Liverpool, Budapest, Sydney, Seattle...
He was a full member of the Royal Society of Fine Arts and was also part of the Society National of Fine Arts in Paris. .