Karen Van Belle

KAREN VAN BELLE (Ghent, Belgium, 1884-1959).
"Female figure", 1940.
Oil on panel.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 107 x 43 cm; 114 x 49 cm (frame).

The one we now bid is a painting completely characteristic of the poetic compositions that Van Belle used to make, where feminine beauty was often glorified, always with an aesthetic close to symbolism. We can observe a young woman with delicate features bending down to reach the reddish leaves of a tree. Not only her hairstyle is striking, following the fashion of the 1940s, but also her dreadful pink dress, whose loops at chest level and the wide structure of its flight evoke past times.

Karel Van Belle trained with Jean-Josef Delvin and Louis Tytgat at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. He was a watercolorist as well as an oil painter. In 1913 he won third place in painting at the Prix de Rome. Currently his work can be found in the museums of Ghent and Tournai.