Armand Rassenfosse

ARMAND RASSENFOSSE (Liège, Belgium, 1862-1934).
"Elegant woman with a little dog", 1929.
Oil on canvas adhered to cardboard.
Signed with monogram in the upper right corner.
Measurements: 69 x 53 cm; 80 x 64 cm (frame).

The canvas "Elegant woman with a little dog" is characterized by being fully representative of the style of Armand Rassenfosse, one of the most personal and refined Belgian artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The work evidences his special interest in the elegant and sensual representation of the female figure, as well as in the creation of intimate and sophisticated atmospheres linked to a taste for fashion, luxury and exotic elements. Rassenfosse presents here a young woman with a delicate face and melancholic expression, dressed in a fur coat and a black cap in keeping with the fashion of the time, while holding a small white dog on her legs. The intense blue background, worked with loose and decorative brushstrokes, gives a dreamy and refined sensation, while the oriental details show the influence of Japanese art, so present in European art at the beginning of the 20th century. In this sense, the presence of samurai figures dressed in traditional armor is particularly noteworthy, an element that reinforces the exotic and decorative character of the composition.

Armand Rassenfosse was an artist noted for his work as an engraver, illustrator, painter and lithographer, linked to symbolism and Art Nouveau; Born in Liège, he developed a work very focused on the female figure, nudes and intimate scenes, and achieved great recognition for the illustrations he made for Charles Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil, in addition to collaborating closely with the artist Félicien Rops and creating innovative engraving techniques that made him an important figure in European graphic art in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.