Emile Charlet

EMILE CHARLET (Belgium, 1851- 1910).
"Maternity".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 65 x 46 cm.
This work represents an African mother seated next to her son in the threshold of a door. Before them, carefully arranged on the floor, fruits and vegetables are observed, which suggests a daily scene of street selling. The mother, with a serene face and dignified presence, holds the child with a gesture that conveys affection and firmness, while the child observes the surroundings with curiosity and the woman directs her gaze to the viewer. The composition is organized around a warm, earthy palette, with accents of color.
The treatment of light, which gently bathes the figures and accentuates the volumes, reveals his technical maturity and his interest in the interaction between the physical environment and the emotional condition of the characters. This painting is part of his genre scenes.
Émile Charlet, was a Belgian painter whose artistic production encompassed a remarkable variety of genres, including portraits, genre scenes, landscapes, animal depictions and still lifes. Throughout his career, his pictorial style evolved considerably; in the first decades of the 20th century, he adopted a more luminous language, close to Luminism and even Pointillism.
Coming from a wealthy family linked to commerce and industry, Charlet received his artistic education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels and completed his apprenticeship in the workshop of the prestigious painter Jean-François Portaels, whose influence can be perceived in his work.
Charlet's exhibition career began at the Ghent Salon in 1874, followed by his participation in the Brussels Salon the following year. For several decades he exhibited his works at the major triennial salons in Belgium, as well as at the Paris Salon and at various exhibitions organized by the Artistic and Literary Circle of Brussels. From 1900, he established his residence and studio in rue Paul Lauters in Ixelles, where he continued to work privately, although he reduced his public presence after 1910. Nevertheless, he held a last exhibition in 1926, shortly before his death.
Charlet's pictorial corpus is characterized by a figurative approach focused on realism and direct observation of nature and everyday life. He was a painter who frequently practiced plein air painting, acutely capturing both human anatomy and atmospheric variations. In the field of portraiture, critics widely recognized his technical skill and his ability to naturally capture the character of his models.
With the turn of the century, Charlet progressively transformed his style: his brushwork became freer and more luminous, and his palette acquired a vaporous clarity with silvery tones. At this stage, influenced by pointillism, he produced works of great atmospheric delicacy. This stylistic transition allowed him to consolidate himself as a master of light and color, capable of combining naturalistic observation with a modern plastic language.