Émile Wauters

ÉMILE WAUTERS (Belgium, 1846-1933).
"Young man with blue cap", 1927.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 41 x 24 cm; 45,5 x 28,5 cm (frame).

Émile Wauters was an eminent portraitist, as can be seen in this female portrait. He developed a bright and energetic palette of delicate ranges, both in oil and pastel.

His portraits, numbering more than two hundred, include many of the most important names in Belgium, France and America (Wauters lived for some years mainly in Paris). Among them may be named Baron Goffinet, Baroness Goffinet, Madame Somze (standing before a piano), Master Somze (on horseback by the seashore), Princess Clementine of Belgium (Brussels Museum), Lady Edward Sassoon, Baron de Bleichroder, Princess de Ligne, Miss Lorillard, a self-portrait of the artist in the Dresden Museum, and M. Schollaert (President of the Chamber of Deputies), the latter an astonishing example of portraiture, full of character and vitality. The vigor of his male portraits and the grace and elegance of his female portraits are unsurpassed, the likeness is perfect and the technical execution places the artist in the front rank.

Émile Wauters was a Belgian painter born in Brussels. He was a pupil of Portaels and Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1868, he produced "The Battle of Hastings: The Finding of Harold's Body by Edith". Wauters made a trip to Italy, but the study of the old masters in no way affected his individuality, as "The Great Ship of St. Mark" (acquired by Leopold II of Belgium) proved. Since his youth prevented him from receiving the Brussels Salon medal, which otherwise would have been his, the minister of fine arts sent him, by way of compensation, as artist-delegate to Suez for the inauguration of the canal, a visit that would later prove fruitful.

In 1870, at the age of only twenty-two, Wauters exhibited his great historical painting "Mary of Burgundy begging the bailiffs of Ghent to pardon the councilors Hugonet and Humbercourt" (Liège Museum), which caused a real furor, an impression that was confirmed the following year at the International Exhibition in London. It was eclipsed by the celebrated "The Madness of Hugo van der Goes" (1872, Brussels Museum), a painting that led to the commission of the two great works that decorate the Lions' staircase of the Hotel de Ville: "Mary of Burgundy swearing to respect the communal rights of Brussels, 1477" and "The armed citizens of Brussels demanding the Charter from Duke John IV of Brabant". His other major compositions include "Sobieski and his General Staff before besieged Vienna" (Brussels Museum) and, the fruit of a trip to Spain and Tangier, "The Great Mosque" and "Snake Charmers of Sokko," as well as a souvenir of his trip to Egypt, "Cairo, from the Kasr-el-Nil Bridge" (Antwerp Museum).

Between 1889 and 1900, the painter contributed to the Royal Academy in London. Few artists have received such a remarkable succession of distinctions and awards. His "Hugo van der Goes", the work of a young man of twenty-four, won him the Grand Medal of the Salon. He received no less than six medals of honor in Paris in 1878 and 1889; Munich, 1879; Antwerp, 1885; Vienna, 1888; and Berlin, 1883.