Guillaume Van Strydonck

GUILLAUME VAN STRYDONCK (Namsos, 1861- Saint-Gilles, 1937).
"At the ball".1914-1915.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Presents wear on the frame and faults.
Measurements: 100 x 74 cm; 113 x 87 cm (frame).

This painting expresses the particular luminist style of Van Strydonck, a painter who began as an academic in his realism and whose style evolved towards an impressionism of flaming palette. The sequined ball gowns of these two women denote a deft handling of color.

Van Strydonck was born in Norway, where her father worked for a Belgian company, but left at an early age. At the age of twelve he began taking drawing lessons from Edouard Agneessens. From 1876 he enrolled at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, where he studied with Jean-François Portaels. Later, he studied with Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris. In 1883, he became one of the founding members of the secessionist group Les XX. At this time, his pictorial style began to rely more on color and the use of light to express fleeting moods, and he is considered one of the creators of a style that came to be called luminism. In 1884 he received the Godecharle Prize. In 1886, he traveled to Florida and lived in India from 1891 to 1896. On his return to Belgium, he settled in Weert, on the banks of the Schelde River, making the Belgian countryside his main subject. He was a professor at the Royal Academy from 1900 to 1931.