M. J. Velten

M. J. VELTEN (Belgium, active in 1840).
"Portrait of a lady".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 62 x 54 cm; 79 x 71,5 cm (frame).

The Belgian portraitist M.J. Velten demonstrates his extraordinary talent in this canvas by capturing the personality of an aristocratic lady. The woman, with a serious but affable face, looks directly at the viewer. She is dressed in nineteenth-century fashion in an elegant blue dress with ruffled sleeves and a boat neckline adorned with tulle lace. Her neck is adorned with a choker featuring a diamond floral rosette, matching her earrings. The hairstyle of the period is distinguished by an elaborate triple braided updo.

During this period the panorama of European portraiture was varied and broad, with numerous influences and largely determined by the taste of both the clientele and the painter himself. However, this century saw the birth of a new concept of portraiture, which would evolve throughout the century and unify all the national schools: the desire to capture the personality of the human being and his character, beyond his external reality and his social rank, in his effigy. During the previous century, portraiture had become consolidated among the upper classes, and was no longer reserved only for the court. For this reason, the formulas of the genre would relax and move away from the ostentatious and symbolic.