Georges Van ZEVENBERGHEN (1877-1968)

Georges Van ZEVENBERGHEN is a Belgian painter. He studied at the Molenbeek Academy in 1895, then at the Beaux-Arts in Brussels (1896-1899).

He then left for Paris in 1903. He stayed there several times between 1910 and 1921. At the Louvre, he contemplated the great masters, in particular Jean Siméon Chardin, whom he admired.

However, the artist was deeply attached to his homeland. Unlike other painters, he decided to stay in Belgium during the Second World War, despite the risks involved.

In 1933, he became a professor at the Royal Academy of Brussels, a post he held until 1948.

His works can be found in many Belgian museums, and a Georges Van Zevenberghen prize is regularly awarded to painters.

For a time, Zevenberghen specialised in still lifes, influenced by the paintings of Chardin seen in the Louvre.

However, the artist also enjoyed depicting women.
He often painted them indoors, immersed in their daily activities.
The shots are focused on the woman, without neglecting the equally refined décor.

The artist demonstrated both his talent as a colourist and his technical ability to render wallpaper and dress fabrics.
He also painted nudes with a less polished palette and a more lively touch.

This is an intimate portrait by the artist.
The woman, whose face is not visible, has her back to the viewer and is not the artist's subject as such.

The stakes: the elegance of her gesture, the rendering of her dress, the colours of the fruit, the beauty of the wallpaper, the work conceived as a window on that fleeting moment in the sanctuary of her bedroom.